General Kuropatkin.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 12 January 1905, Page 30

General Kuropatkin.

General Kuropatkin, the commander of the entire Russian land foaces in the Far East, is undoubtedly one of the cleverest mon in the entire European world of arms, as he is one of the most interesting personally He is olten described as ' the Russian Kitchener, 1 and his methods are very much akin to those of the famous British general. For example, he is most insistent upo n the young oilicers of his army taking their profession seriously, and thoroughly detests the military dude. A short time ago, before the war broke out, he paid a visit to an Eastern Siberian depot, where one night a ball was given and a great effort was made to impress him with a cordial welcome. He left in disgust, but before doing so he made some very strong remarks upon the extravagance of the officers which he had seen displayed, and declared besides that the ladies had no business to dress so expensively as they did, since it was palpable that their husbands could not afford it. The inevitable resailt, he said, was that the officers would get into debt and that tjheir work would then suffer. General Kuropatkin is a man of about fifty-five years of age, very short of stature, dark, very quiet of demeanor, and extremely reticent, especially about his own achievements.

Lie Received His Early Military Education in France, where his abilities were greatly appreciated, and he had much to do with some extensive reforms which were carried out in connection with the French cavalry, being decorated for his services in this respect. Once he was attached to a French expeditionary column in Algeria and took part in a great desert march. He has said that it was in this way he learned tactics which afterwacds proved invaluable when the Russians were fighting the Turks. Such was his passion for the study of detail that, though a soldier in the French army, he was whilst thus in France on no fewer than four occasions arrested by gendarmes in mistake as a spy. Another time he was on suspicion turned out of the inn in which he had ordered his drnner and a bed. On that occasion he took his dinner with him and ate it publicly in the open square facing the town Hall, and afterwards slept in the open air under a hedge. Later on, in the great Russian operations against the Turks, ho was Uhief of the Staff to the famous General Skobelefi, and after the battle of Plevna was left on the field for d«ad. He has received many wounds, and to this day carries bullets about with him which the surgeons were unable to extract. Arter this war he became Governor of the Transcaspian provinces, and his success was such Uhat he was called to St. Petersburg to take up the onerous duties of Minister of War. He is a man of The Most Prompt Decision ani immediate action. Late one night, when he had been in his bed at St. Petersburg for some hours, a messfn^er came to him with an anonymous letter, which stated that within twenty-lour hours, according to arrangements which had been carefully made, the arsenals at St. Petersburg and Toulon were to be blown up. Kuropatkin believed the letter, though he did not know his correspondent. 'So he at once got up, dressed himself, and paid a surprise visit to the arsenal in the middle of the night. On his arrival there he ordered

out for inspection the entire guard and every employee down to the humblest menial. When he had eyed them over, saying nothing about what he had heard, he made a snort speeoh in which he expressed his entire satisfaction, and added that as a mark of approval he would given them e\ery one a month's leave of absence to date irom that very mrnute, not a single man being allowed to return to his quarters. Within an hour they had all leu the place and a new guard was installed, witfi instructions that, if any member of the old staff were to put in an appearance later upon any excuse, he was instantly to be placed under arrest. Nothing happened to the St. Petersburg arsenal, but the next day that at Toulon Was Blown Up ! General Kuropatkin is very pronounced in his hatred or the Finns, a circumstance which is said to be due as much as anything to the fact that in many ways they have subjected him to petty annoyances. He has a country house in Finland, and on one occasion when travelling there he was extremely annoyed on reaching the Finnish frontier to lind his special private carriage Invaded by all kinds ol persons with whom he fiad no acquaintance. He made a protest to the stationmaster, wffo somewhat; brusquely retorted that as there was no room elsewhere in the train for these travellers they were entitled by the regulations to sit even in the general's private carriage. So they remained there. On another occasion he was staying at this country house when he received a telegram from St. Petersburg summoning him to an urgent meeting of the Council of State. He applied for a special train to take him there, but the railway authorities refused it, a refusal Kuropatkin said he would not soon forget. He has also an intense hatred of the yellow races, both Japanese and Chinese ; but a few years ago he spent some time in Tokio, and got on very well there with his future enemies. He is a keen angler— his only recreation— and he applied to the authorities for permission fco fish in the ponds In the grounds of the Shiba Palace, in the Japanese capital. This was granted, and the general caught several fish, which, it is curious to remember now, he sent as a present to the Japanese Minister for War. General Kuropatkin is a great favorite with the Czar, and all Russia believes in him.