SERVIA AND ITS ARMY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 66, 18 March 1915, Page 4

SERVIA AND ITS ARMY.

While the attention of the world ie c being drawn to toe scenes of moTe ex- f citing events or those in which t/he col- ' diere of the Greater Powere play a part, v LQit IRUe country of Servia, which was f the starting pkc? of the whoto con ' llagration, has .all but disappeared from ' sight, "i et it it. etill putting up as good fc a Qght as Belgium, and if its calamitife ' have not been co overwhelming they are * neverutetees very great. The difference C is thai the AuetTo-Hungarian trooru do t not make euoh a strong fighting machine ( as tflie Germane , have formed, and on'the 1 other hand the Servtaif-goftßerS are tried t and experienced campaigners, compared ( to whom £he Belgians ate raw 'Ireenirte. ! s Madame Cristitch, who mitee in "the s Contemporary" on the SeTvian eoldiere, ' denies th*t tine national character is military. Servia has for five centuries ] been pressed between Turk and Teuton « (or rather Magyar), and tte people have s acqurred the "habit of sell-defence. During all these centuries their wars have t not been foT puipceeß of aggireeeion, but ° for the defence of themselves or their ! kindred. The Servian peasant has been j pictured drivlrig has plough with one 1 haad and with the other folding a gun ' to keep ioff the enemy. Their aTm;«e ( went into the field well seasoned by their y experience in the two Balkan Ware, ( \vMdh inetead of exhausting them had < 'habituated to tlhe ihardehips of the l . roughest campaig-ning. M'adame Cri*- | tltcli give* a glowing account of theii i ooutage, endurance and gaiety in the ' midst <di ti* tragedlics AM horrors of . repea.'f«d invaekm. Thfeirs ie largely an | army <oi i&wsaiite', *nd they dleplay the i hairdiiiyod' and the (recuperative powem ( of eoas of the coil. along with traits of | simplicity. Sac quotes one bucolic addresß w*hich reached the army's postal t Gerviee —"To my eon Milan, convoy 6«t- * geant in charge of two fine yellow oxen, big animate m good condition, with the j glorious Serbian Army wherever it may i be." i The Servian soldier goes into battle 1 in the unshakable belief that thei i national hero, Marko Kraljevicb, ie riding at the head of the troops, mounted on •his white charger, w&vi'ng hie country- { men on to victory. Their whole heart is in this war against one of tiheir two . ihereditarj' encmiies. On the one side of them Uses invaeion, d'e^■ , alstαtion and ■, •ra-toonal annifhilati-on if they yield to Austria; oh thp othw sid«i the long- [ diesiTed prizes of victory, re-union wJth V f their kindr<Hl in Bosnia and tteTSeg'ov.in:!. ! and a seaport on thp coaet of Dalmati-a, vvhftre nmother branch of their raoedwells. Tliejr army is not a sliow army, and the t nature of fhieir fighting has bsc-n mare or f less irregular, but at tlhc outbreak of wa,r t th«!ir force* were remairkably. well or- '' ga.niecd. The Servian Government had f long expectrd a. struggle with Austria, 1 and prepared fox it. The exact number i of forcee they put into th* fieM is not ' known with certaiinty, but it is reckoned -' at 350,000. Th<fir a.rtiUery Ls of first- i class materiel, and the men in charge of t it have leairnt, .under French instruction, ( to serve with' precision, efficiency, aod a i mobility that Se extremely valuable wieo i

tine eceoe of action continually shifts from piace to place. What cavalry they fiave is good, but tney poosese only a few regiment?. 1-nfanibry is betteT eufbed for fighting in the hilly iregion of their frontiers, and in this branch li-es &eiT chief strength. Thieir medical staff wae origood and weii equipped, but it is in lirgeiw. ire*"d now of fTesh doctors and Bupplics. The Servian Army «in a vfery different position from tJbe arm it* of the Great Powers, which have almost inexhauetSble Tesources to fiH back upon, and which can nrake up by appeals for any ahoirtagc t>o battle or diewasc. Recetit cables tell us that an epidemic of typhus hae broken out amongst the troop 6, and 'that many doctors have died of it; a serfoue calamity to so entail a. na-tioii. Servia has suffered repeated invaskms or Vrruptions of the Miemy during the war. The first movement was the tempted "punitive expedition" of the AHstro-Hungariasie, wh-o, to the eurprise of the woirld, wiea-e held up for a fortnight by the emaller army of defence and the artillery it planted on the higher Southern bank of the Sire and" Danube. On i'he 12th August the Auetrians streamed into tlhe eoun:try. out three weeks lat?r they n-ere driven out of it into Bosnia. The Russian advance into Gal'icia then forced them to give up the attack for a time, except for the intermittent bdmbardmCTit of Belgrade. This. too. was ended for a time, when a party of Serbs crossed the river and silenced " the Austrian guns by might. Meanwhile the Servian© had entered the Austrian provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where in miany places tiwy were welcomed by the Slav inhabitants. When the Auirtrians again drove back the Servians they inflicted a ferocious punishment upon the;e "d-ieloyal" subjects of thei.r.s. Crowds of refug-e'eis fled from the provinces into Seryia, still further burdening it with their support. The tide of victory keep-, fluctuating in and around Scnia" more tlun in any other region, and there has te-p-n a aeries of invasions and oounterinvasiorcs during which t!hc agriculture and industries -of the country have bten disorganised, and m fomt parts delitroyed. On thp whole the Servians have g-a'.med tTie advantage, and the 'have infljetpd on their enemK-s mudh heavier losses than they have sustained. But their supplies of men. ammunition, nwdical app/lanere and foiod aTe limited to their own resources, so that io-'feea na%v tell more anvi more upon them. They have hern prartioally \cft to themselves, and Riif-ian -a = iistanre Tia3 had to confine itself to drawing off part of the Auistro-Hungairian forcre to Che defence of Galicia. -Ssrvia in comp.letely hemmed ,in by Austro-Hungary and by ttie neutral Balkan Statce, so that no aid can be sent by the-Allirs. Yet it has served the purposes of the- Allies well by engaging-rat the outset, /our Austrian corps which had it yielded, would have been frera to' ' complete the subjugation wf Belgium and aeeist the march on Paris.