WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1917, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

UNTRAINED RUSSIAN SOLDIERS The recent Russian failure on tin* smith-western front is discussed by the correspondent of Mh '.torning ?>>*t He writes:—"What precisely is the condition of the men in unifotm in the war tone outsiders cannot pretend to know or understand. Indeed, it has puttied tX' pericneed officers who have seen warfare in manv lands to appreciate justly the significance of the unprecedented phenomenon of the general exodus from ih« i front, described in my previous despatches. If a civilian may venture an opinion based on some knowledge of the nature of the Russinn generally, I should affirm that these very-ignorant, uncultured masses, having no real ideas of their own on the subjects dealt with by 'political speakers during the past Ave months, are quite likely to become soldiers again when a reversion is made' to the proper methods of teaching, namely, not words but deeds. Hundreds'of tli'out&nds, of course, will not respond to an/, even the most drastic, forms of treatment, for the (simple reason that during the past five months of absolute Moth they have not learned the most elementary technical husiness of soldiering. There were whole units who so far frera being able to shoot, did not even knpw how to load a rifle. But among the many millions Russia has at the front. plenty of trained soldiers are there, and soldierly treatment of thesa men will very soon tjirn them into the same braves that we have been accustomed to h(!ar about during the first two and a-h&tf, years of this war." < INVENTOR OP NEW GRENADE.! Having risen from the rank of tfri. vatri in the 'loth Overseas Battalion t< that of colonel, invented a grenade «,on being adopted for the British armies and been decorated with the Distinguish ed Conduct Medal and the French Cri>i> de Guerre, Col. Macklem has returnc to Canada and is now in Ottawa on his way to Washington oa a mission for fh< British Government. Col. MackMtn whose home is in Tilbury, Ontario, enlist ed as a private in the ioth Battalion' ai Calgary, and went overseas with the first contingent. He wa* wounded ai Festubert and again at Zillebckc, where he lost the sight of one eye. While in th<: hospital, convalescing after the latter wound, he invented a new type of grenade which the British War Office has accepted for use by its troops and in re. turn for which it paid him £20,000 in cash and pays a royalty upon the manufacture.

Col. Macklem has a letter from Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig congratulating him on the invention of one of the most effective' weapons produced during the war. lie has also been informed that the adoption of lug grenade means a saving of thousands of pounds sterling a day to the British Government and •the preservation of nuuy so]4leri' lire*.