The Daily News. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 2, 1915. RUSSIA'S HANDICAPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 2, 1915. RUSSIA'S HANDICAPS.

The immensity of the territory eompri*".1 in the Ru-sian F.mpire is generally trcogni-eij, bill, as a rule, there me lOV beyond I hose whose bu-ine-s it i- to know Ihe actual tacts relating to lh.it countrv who have even a remote .011icption that such a vast extent of country can practically be hemmed in by natural mid inimical barriers. The total ic>ea of F.ni'opean anil Asiatic Russia amounts to H.(il7,tislt -quale miles, exclusive of inland waters. The depreis.oii which j"ins trie lllaek Sea and tile Keltic through the valley* of the Dticij er, the I'ripyat and the Vistula separates two different world-, and Hie climale \arit> from that of the Arctic to that of the genial .sphere of the ,\|>*il- j iterraucaii. while the .oiintrv is rah in mineral products, especially platinum. The great drawback that Russia suffers is that for a third of the year most of tier outlets to the «ea are ice-bound, the coast of Russian l<apland being one of the few stretches that, thanks to the Gulf Stream, is ice-free. This means thai for only eight months in the year ran foreign supplies in any considerable j quantities be imported. I'nder normal circumstances no difficulty arose In connection with the food supply. China sent provisions. Australia contributed frozen meat, and America supplied Hour to Vladivostock. In this time of war America and Japan have been supplying munitions, but the winter is approaching, and with it the ice-barrier. It must be remembered that on the land side Russia is now almost blocked in by Austria, Germany and Turkey, while its, Asiatic neighbors are mostly barbarous tribes or decadent civilisations. Tt would naturally be considered that such an enormous continent would have enabled the Russians to supply all their own needs, and leave a fair margin for export. In normal times that state of affairs exists, and were the Dardanelles opened up Russia could and would export a very large quantity of wheat. As It is, she is cut off from the outside nftrketa owing to the war, but why sue

lias been importing flour from America is a mystery that she alone can unravel. Inland from Vladivostock is a fertile region of five thousand square miles which could be devoted to wheatgrowing. Manchuria has a wheat-grow-ing area equal to that of North-west Canada, and Siberia could not only grow enough wheat to supply the world, but sufficient dairy produce to far more than equal the combined output of the rest of the world. Not only can Russia supply ample food, but the country can also produce cotton, wool and furs world-renown. If such extensive resources as Russia possesses were develop, ed in the same energetic way as the resources of New Zealand are being developed, no country in the world would be so rich and prosperous, but the Russians are proverbially slow and difficult to move out of a beaten track. Possibly the conditions under which the people! have lived for centuries have largely [contributed to this inertia and inadequate application of the necessary enterprise to make the most of the re- ! sources that await profitable exploitation. As in pastoral affairs so Is It in mineral, of which the supplies are illimitable in' quantity and inestimable in value. The matter is onte that rests entirely with the people, for on their efforts must the realisation of the national wealth depend. Soon after the war began all trade in Libau stopped; at Riga and the other Baltic ports it was the same, and Odessa, Sebastapol, Batoum and other ports were idle. At Archangel there was more or less busif ness, but that port is ice-bound for five months in the year. The Austro-Ger-man invasion of Poland has cut off one of Russia's chief centres of the iron industry, but there are others in different parts of the country that can be utilised in the future—in the near future if the men could be found and the necessary frotories built. Here, again, comes in another handicap, for all Russian industrial organisation is out of joint in consequence o£ the array absorbing the manhood of the nation. In spite of this lack of workers a great deal of necessary work will be done, but Russia will for a while be more or less dependent on the outer work}, though all her people who can assist will doubtless do so With such vast resources and so large a population Russia need have no fear of her Austro-German foes. She is practically unconquerable, and the splendid fighting qualities of her soldiers have been well exemplified. Groat as are Russia's handicaps, they can be overcome, and her future will probably show that this terrible war has its compensations, not the least of which is the stirring up of the people to devote their best energies to the development of the resources of the country.