RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1917, Page 5

RUSSIA.

MORE OPTIMISTIC REPORTS.

MORALE OF RUSSIAN ARMY IMPROVING. United Service. Received Aug. M, 8 p.m. London, Aujf. 1.1. Mr. Wilton, the press corres]iondent, gives more o; mistic reports of the liussiiin armies' morale, which is improving, whilst there is a cessation of the wholesale retreat. He admits that the fiirlitiitj; elliciency of the armies is still an uncertain quantity, but optimism, is spreading.

ENEMY DRIVEN BACK.

ROUMANIANS OBSTINATELY ATTACIvINO.

Received Aug. 11, 8 p.m. London, Aug. 13. Wireless Russian official: We are supporting the Roumanians, and drove the enemy back in the OcnagrozecMi region, and captured a series of heights. ' Wc repulsed counter-attacks in tlie Sloniku valley. The Roumanians are obstinately attacking in the direction of Foesan'i. We held our positions westward of the Focsani-Jud railway.

HEAVY REINFORCEMENTS. OVERWHELMING BATTERING BLOW IMJILNENT.

• Received Aug. 14, S p.m London, Aug. 13. M. Marcel Hutin states lliat fourteen new (.'crman, nine Ausii-o-and four Tureo-ISulgarian divisions have reinforced Octicnil Mackonsen, who intends to deliver an overwhelming battering ram blow.

WEIRD BEYOND BELIEF.

ANOTHER REASON FOR RUSSIAN FAIL UK li.S.

Russian motor truck administration, or mnl-aduiinistratioti, is weird bevond belief. In it rests .the secret of the in-and-out performances of the Russian armies. From a. variety of causes, little improvement can be* expected in the future. And for that reason Kussia is not considered a dependable factor in the war. lit that country, so vast that it covers an appreciable' share of the world's surface, populated with teeming millions of people, there were but 10,Ot)(i motor vehicles before the war, fewer than iu any prosperous middle-class American city (oays a San Francisco correspondent). Of this number -J(KII) were a certain light, small, pleasure ear. There was but one motor factory in the country, and that made ponderous touring cars and no motor trucks.

Russia lias a battle line of thousand? of miles on fronts varying as widely as is possible in climatic conditions. if is subtropical and' desert on the south, artic and ice-field on the north. Then* are inountaiiis, plains, swamps*, glaciers, .jungles; grave! roads, stone roads, corduroy roads, poor roads, 110 roads at all. Methods of transportation are as primitive as the people There are very few railroads; shaggy little horses hitched to tiny, long-shaft wagons; dog-teams, goat teams, fiat-bottom sleighs from the steppes; trains of gigantic camels—lvan, the Russian peasant, is more or less familiar with them all and gets action of a sort! with them. But the motor truck was beyond liis comprehension. There are thousands of square miles of territory where a rnotor-cfir lias never been Been, where the people would rim away from one, loudly declaring it to be a devil. Even the motor-cycle and ihe ■bicycle are strange, and unheard of in Russia's back-of-beyond. Yet the red wave of war rolled up on "Rusuia and her ■millions of Ivans marched out to roll it back. They bad to be fed, to be clothed, to be transported. Arms had to be placed in their hands. The motor truck was peculiarly needed for these tasks as it wa» needed on no other battle front. The motor trucks were bought helterskelter, frantically, all makes, in every market, at any price. The next question was, where to get the drivers. Russia has few adventurers with motor experience in her armies, so there were no teachers. And Ivan is chuckleheaded about machinery. But supplies had to he carried and some one bad to do the driving. Ivan was dragged out of Siberia by the scruif of the neck, flung on the grim, drab monster, and curtly ordered: "Harness h'ini; ride him; guide him!" About every base for months alter the war began scores of motor wrecks in every conceivable position and degree of completeness. There were "head-oiis'' and "tail-ends*' and ''broadsides," and grand jams in which three or four or even more ears participated. On many of them were the dark-brown stains which showed that Ivan had paid for his 'ignorance with his life.