THE REAL RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 232, 29 September 1915, Page 7

THE REAL RUSSIA.

RFTV. \V. (.. MOSCKTO.VS LECTURE. At the (irafton Library iast night tho limelight was turned on Ruiutia and her p*rt in the war, the illuminating agent for thp occasion being the Rev. \V. <■'•■ ilonrkton. and it fefJe to My thut when I toe audience that crowded the lecture- , room had viewed the subject under the rovenJing waren light of thr lecturer* intoUigrnc*-. vividly reinforced by beams j : from the foremost contemporary j I authorities, they had a mental picture wliicli t>upplird the majority of them with « master key for application to the r-jblcd war newfi. giving an inspiring fi;. , j milcance u> what had hitherto left them | j with a harassing impresi-ion of hard j ! name* and suspected military i-uphem hfepi< for results that would not sound ! ! quite pleasant to British ears in everyI day British language. In i-hort, it wwl a -liocrful and convincing exposition of I wliat ha* occurred in recent montlm on j thr western frontier of the war zone I sh>.« how the Russians had U loyal: I allied ••luvalrousiy drawn down on their. I dovoted heads the most crushing device ; lof the German thunderl>oltH to have the ! blow from fuUinp on the British and ; i French at a time when they were weak | ! em. and. having dune ho, dexterously extricated themselves from one of the moat I hazardous positions in which a gn-at urmy had ever been placed, Mr. Monckton described that tremen di>u.* engine of destructireness known a* the Herman phalanx," compacted of just on a million men and 4.00.0 of the j[uii» ever known. all i hi'.inentifically equipped and disposed to conrrntrate their fnplit fill weight of number* and dc HUnirtlVMlees in one colossal blow on a ! particular point: and explained how. all jth- moment when that fearful rnachin ■ : \> ii * on the point of being laiinchcd atrain»t the weakened French and British in burst it* terrible way to Pans. ( alms, i ! rw'rhnp* I»ndon. a request to the Russian allies received iru>tantaneou» response, fipm the (irand Duke Nicholas, who, I ji:,miiim the military canon«. made a ' drive at the Kaftt Pnisnian centre and j the llurtßanun wheatfldds which forced; tile German phalanx, in protection of j I Irimany's vital fc>o<l end strategic cen | tne*. to fly to the wratera frontier. With | «(.rd and picture the lecturer vividly j i presented the failure of the terrible j piliUanv roneeivcd and built for the ! i ilose-rßiled cour.triesi when it wa* Uionrhed in the wild, half railed wide I I i>fiac<-i of the Carpathians and Galieia. j , 1 junrhed to annihilate the Ru9f.mll I army, it had to be squeezed through the ;I Mi kin Pass, and here the peniuo of OimiItrieff dealt* it a crushing blow by eoncnntr»ling. on the mouth of the pass. lim artillery fed with filirapnel. end so hirid up the attack that the other Ru* M)in GeneraL" could withdraw beyond r<i»ch of the terrific artillery of the Gcr I mn.n*. of the country that j fqnni. the present th*atre of RuwiO-Ger-I niiao fifrhting. snomjap.ird by deecripI tipns of the troops and the cireumntances j wfre given to show that the Russian rntreat wan in effect a military masterp»ec* on their p»rt. and their escap« frnm ■.α-nihilstion on the Gaiiciaa plains ! another G«nna.n failure. j Throughout hss lecture-Mr. Monckton 1 MiTCwed thr point that the real Russia J arid the Russian epirk were crnonriiiout ' |wi;i, the RuMiar r#at«nt. the owinpr of i I bus littl* plot of land, rootod to hi» ! jnHtivesuil.iiimple-minded. kindly. e>Tnpa|thetic.*pd intensely re!ipiou«. Incident* of thr war. from the Russian chivalrou* ! effort in the Carpathians to help th(?ir j allies down to the hospitable treatment lof prisoner*, were quoted to show that 1 the*e ch*ract*ri«tic* penetrate all Rusi»ia. end that the wild-ered iincrrhiom ,flitd ermMtr of Xihiliet fiction showed Ruwuin character in a totally false light, and had piren ri»e to conoeptiorui among i Britinh people which had been belied by ! the chivalry of the Ru.aia.ns in thin war. , M;r. Monrkton earnestJy preaeed I the : point that the kindly, simple, home-iov-inpr and ferrontly rcligioue Russian peasant Kymoolwed the real Ruutia that Rtood eteunchly with Britain and France lin a righteous war because it was riirhtcoon. Mr. T. W. Ley*, who proeidod et the I lecture, in moving a vote of thanks I mentioned that his knowledge of RueiKir.ri literature, and what he bad per ; Minally seen of Rusaian pedants inclined j him to endorse Mr. Monrkton's viewe on : the point. In commenting on the fact J that this wae to* last of the war aeries of lecture* arrancrd by Mr. John Barr for the Grafton Library. Mr. Leys con patulatod Mr. Barr on the euecWee that had attended the branch in iv initial I year, and appealed for yet greater enpj port, in tne way of taking aahecribere , , tickets, when next eeries of Ice- ■ tare* had b«fji arranged.