GENERAL WRANGEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

GENERAL WRANGEL.

"WHITE" LEADER'S CAREER. (London Times Correspondent.) fleneral Wrangel is by far tlio most competent leader that the White Guards' of Russion have ever had. Only between lnm and Koltehak may a parallel he drawn, and even so, to the advantage of W range!. He is both a greater soldier and a greater administrator Ihan Koltcl.alc, and is the happv possessor o! a temperament which inspires the love and respect as well as the tear of those w ho serve under him. Me has, more than any of his illfated predecessors, succeeded in convincing ihe Russian people that he is a deinoerat and has their interests at General Wrangel is something milch more than a dashing cavalry leader and a great organiser. He is a student of human nature and a hard worker. His career is full of purpose. He has crowded more ,nto ]ij„ 41 years than most men. Born at l'etrograd in 1879, the elder son of an impoverished Baltic baron of Swedish descent, his education was very different from that of the average Russian noble.

M the age of 20 young- Wrangel entered the Academy of Engineers at Pctrograrl. He finished the course brilliantly, and alter serving for one year as 'a private in the Horse Guards, which regiment he left with the. rank of NCO at once proceeded fo Siberia, The* came the Kus>o-.lapanese War. Out in Siheria be joined the Trans-Raikal Cossack Regiment, and so distinguished himself that he was promoted on the neht to the rank of captain. "When the world-war broke out he was given command of a squadron as senior captain of his regiment. In the fir«t encounter of any importance be!ween Kussmn and German troops the Horse <'"nrds were decimated. The day was all hut Insf when Captain Wrangel at the head of his small .squadron of cavalry, and conlrary to orders, charged and routed the enemy, capturing -the first two Germmi gnus taken by the Russians during the war. For this daring exploit he v.-„< immediately given the rank of ("lone! (I ,H bis seniors bad Veen killed), received nf St. George's Cross, and was made A.D.C. fo the late Tsar, Tn lill.i he was appointed commander of one of 'he Cossack regiments on the Galieian front,

llie oulbroak of the "Rovoluiion found mm on the Austrian front, in command "f a division ~f Cossacks, who .were prepared to die for him. He was one of the lirst to join Kaicdin, and after the murder of the last named, strakihtwav attache,! himself' to CeneraJ Alexeielf's \"lnu(ccf Army in the South, and subsoqmmlly joined Denikin.

As one of Denikin's generals liitle was heard of him. until, on |l„, retirement ol Dcinkin. he was unanimously , P . churned the leader of the White finard movement. A British Flying Squadron u'lth lierukin's army was attached to "rank's delachment, and the British ollicers who came ;„ Cli „ eiu ,, with him ™nnoi :-pcak 100 liiehtv of bin, He is a wan of s ,o„, personal courage, ami was mor,. popular with his men than *ny ollnvr in the whole of the White Ann v.