RUSSIA'S TASK.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1916, Page 5

RUSSIA'S TASK.

ALL READY. ARMY EXCELLENTLY EQUIPPED. Petrograd, May 9. It is semi-officially stated that the present Russian Army is excellent. It is wholly armed with Russian rifles of the new model, and every regiment is well supplied with the newest machineguns. The supply of munitions is adequate, and two million men are now training in the interior. UNLIMITED CONFIDENCE. WORK IN THE FACTORIES. ' Times .and Sydney Sun Services. London, May 9. TKe Vice-President of the Duma, M. Alexander Protopopoff, interviewed by the Sunday Times, expresses Russia's limitless confidence and determination. Throughout Russia the mobilisation of every energy proceeds steadily. Only thirty-three per cent, of the men of military age have been recruited. Giving an instance of the reorganisation of works, M. Protopopoff said that sixty million roubles 'had been spent on new workshops at Vladivostock for the output of rolling stock And munition trains. Three hundred textile factories have been taken over by the War Office and 68 of the biggest metallurgical works turned into munition factories!

i GERMANY'S SCHEMES. : AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM AS YET. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, May 9. "The prospects of a German offensive on the Russian front are the dominating interest in the Inilitary situation. General Hindenburg 'has massed artillery and ammunition on the Dvinsk and Riga fronts and is bringing up supplies by rail and sea to Memel and Libau. Guns from fortresses, including Konigsberg, have been transferred.

Skirmishes, are proceeding at many points, hindering Russia from ascertaining where the chief attempt is likely to be made. A great German effort to roll up Kuropatkin's army, capture IPetrograd, possibly cut connections between Moscow and Archangel, and attempts to draw Sweden into the war, appears possible. Another possibility is that under tfhe mask of these operations the Germans intend to attack Brussiloff's armies in the southern zone, securing Austrian and Bulgarian help in env-eloping Rumania and diverting the Russian armies from Asia Minor. Mr. T. L. Garvin, writing in the Observer, points out that if the Russian armies are driven back the struggle will certainly be prolonged beyond 1917, but it is impossible to state the real strength of the Germans oil the East front.