RED MILLIONS OF RUSSIA. CASEIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1919, Page 12

RED MILLIONS OF RUSSIA. CASEIN.

VAST FORCES THAT LACK WEAPONS. Interesting information of the military conditions in Soviet Russia have been obtained by the Daily News from two well-informed Prussians; who have recently returned to Paris from Petrograd via (he Ukraine and Poland. Undoubtedly by far the most important man from a military point of view is Trotsky, without whom the Red Army could not have been organised, and whose death would mean the downfall of the Bolshevik regime. The figures' officially quoted by Trotsky showing that his Red Army is already one million strong are not an overestimate, and his statement that by the spring of this year he will have mobilised about'three million men is ako probable; but an effective army, of this colossal number is quite impossible owing to lack of guns, rifles, munitions, and equipment. In addition, the percentage of deserters:, mainly from the educated and peasant classes, is very high. As a typical instance, a Soviet regiment ordered to the Finnish front left its barrheks 1200 strong; at the Petrograd Finnish station it was 700 strong; on arrival at the front it was 500 strong.

At present the mainstays of the Bolshevik Government.are the Chinese and Lett regiments. The former were recruited for labor purposes; from Chinese coolies by the late Imperial Government during the war. Their position became worse and worse during 1917 and 1918, when public works practically ceased, and the return of the soldiers from the front deprived them of work. Tho Bolsheviks took advantage of this;, and offered them high pay and large rations if they would enter the International Regiments and fight for the Bolshevik cause. The Lett regiments are composed of genuine Bolsheviks, and they fully realise that their only hope 'lies; in the maintenance of Bolshevik rule, since their own countrymen in Livonia have banished them for ever, and anti-Bol-shevik Russia would give them short shrift after all the atrocities they have committed. The Red Army, despite Trotiky's efforts to make it efficient, has not yet emerged from tho stage of organisation. It is still scarcely deserving of the name of an army, and would be more fitly de:cribed as; consisting of well-organised guerilla bands. In the infantry the lack of rifles, munitions, and clothing is very acute. In the eavalry great numbers of horses have died from lack of fodder, and this problem is most s;erious, Further, most of the cavalrymen arc old soldiers of the Regular Army, and their loyalty to the Bolsheviks is very doubtful. The artillery is very weak. There are practically no heavy guns, while tha field gims are speedily deteriorating owing to careless use and the impossibility of replacement. Few new guns can be obtained.