A GREAT GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1916, Page 10

A GREAT GENERAL.

G.EXERAL BRUSILOFF. Mr. Washburn, the correspondent of the Times, with the Russian forces, "was visiting the southern group of armies in July, and in am of his despatches he ■gives an interesting note concerning General Brusiloff. *on this front," he says, "tlio chief command is now in the hands of General Brusiloff, a man whose record has been one of almost universal success in this war. It was his army that, in the first months of the Avar, swept into Galieia. and made possible the taking of Lemberg thirty days after the declaration of hostilities. It was again his, army that penetrated the Dukla Pass and was already pushing into tho Hungarian plain, throwing the Dual Monarchy into political chaos and tlw big cities into panic, when the German drive, on the Dunajec and the destruction of the neighboring army left his right flank exposed' to the attacks of limitless numbers of Germans pouring through the hole in tine line like water through a leak in a dyke. In spite of superior forces, lack of ammunition and difficulties of terrain, Brusiloff withdrew his army in good order, and, with the assistance of reserves 'hurried up, was able to check the Germans on the San, after which the Russian retreat was definitely a rearguard action and mot in any way a precipitate retreat. "Brusiloff himself is a man of the very highest type of intellect, and the ideal of a soldier who is equally good at attack or defence. When one meets him one feels that one ia in the presence of the highest product of culture and of a long line of ancestors who have«bredi a specimen) that can be relied on to show the last degree of mettle is an emergency. With finely moulded features, long tapering fingers; steady grey eyes, Brusiloff is at the first glance a thoroughbred. No man in the Russian Army knew Galicia more intimately than; ho, and no man hod a finer record, and when Ivanoff became confidential adviser to the Emperor in' his personal suite, Brusiloff was his natural successor in the command on this important front. His first act after taking over the command was to make a personal inspection of ail his armies at the front, and before the present mover ment began ho knew personally exactly what to expect from almost every unit, wMe Ilia intimate knowledge of the country and of the psychology of tjhe enemy gave him the background of understanding for the planning and carrying forward of the whole campaign. "Brußiloff himself has. his staff in a certain little town amidsty the waving wheatfiekls of Southern Russia,' where he is as detached from the turmoil and corafusioit of warfare as though he were ten thousand miles away. This particular town was never, I think, noted for its luxuries. Certainly there 'were here no sumptuous villas or country houses in which'a general might establish himself. In amy case, Brusiloff is not that kind of general. In a- small, barely-furnished room he is (Directing the vast campaign which is raging over a frttnt -of hundreds of miles in length. Brusiloff himself has changed greatly since I saw him in Brody a, year ago. IHis hair has turned perceptibly, and he looks at least tea years older. His face is deeply lined and his mien sober and serious, while his sensitive mouth has grown stern and unyielding in its 'lines. Only the twinkle in ills deep grey eyes shows the humor and the perpetual youth which are among the dominant characteristics of the man 'himself. Prom his map-strewn desk he can look out acrosis the deep wheat fieldts which from the window stretch beneath like the expanse of the sea, as the soft southern wind sweeps across their swayJ ing acres. Surrounded by a picked staff, each man chosen for his efficiency, BdusiloU' to-day 'represents about the best that Russia has yet' produced •in the way of a strictly fighting soldier."