ALEXIEFF AND HIS MEN

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 68, 18 September 1917, Page 8

ALEXIEFF AND HIS MEN

A STIRRING APPEAL

BEFORE HIS RETIREMENT

Since the revolution began there lias been a great deal of talking in Russia. While much of it has been bad, some has beeii oratory of the, highest order. But perhaps, no more eloquent address hae been delivered in Russia since the day on which the Tsar ceased to rule than the simple but stirring and dignified appeal which General Alexieff 1 made to a group of soldiers' delegates, standing among them in a barrack courtyard at. Headquarters, a few days before he retired from the Chief, Command. As this speech failed to reach England by telegraph, we translate it in a condensed form from the Russian Press :—

General Alexieff said : I have' already told you what our position is- Our Allies are wearing themselves out in battle. The Italians began an advance, and are doing well and beating the Austrians; but.neither for them is it an easy matter, because the Austrians have begun to take troops from our'front and throw them on the Italian front. On our front few of the enemy remain. No later than yesterday the head of a division was hei ye from Pripet, and said that when he inspected the positions and ordered, the direction of the fire to be checked—a few rounds were fired in a couple of villages—there was no answer whatever. Only after some time a. couple of. bomb-throwers threw a few bombs, which fell about a verst short of the battery. ; That gives me the right to think that the enemy has transferred, not only -his infantry, but also a large part of his artillery to the Western front, where his cause is becoming more and more difficult every day. .- '' , As you know, both the English and the French—and especially the English, a stubborn, firm, and enduring nation— when they have once taken a matter in hand, carry it through to the end. But division after division is transferred to the "Western front, which, in the end, will , make: it .possible for Hindenburg, if not to upset, at any rate to arrest the •further development of the[-Allies' victorious advance. And it wiE end with this—that the Germans will transfer their divisions to our front. In the course of a month and a-half they can accumulate on our front such a, "fist" as will break through our position somewhere or another.

I PAST AND PRESENT CONDITIONS. [ If in 1915, when the north-western I front (Eighth Army) was on my shoal-; [ ders, we had to retire or retreat, it was I because there were no cartridges and no, shells. The lack was such that sometimes in the evening, when the armies telegraphed to me,, "Send us more shells," I had in i reserve for the whole of the Eighth Army altogether 7,000 shells., When they prayed for cartridges I sometimes had for the whole of the Eighth Army only'2oo,ooo—it was rarely that there were a million. We lived hungering ahd sometimes absolutely starving for military stores. Now we are in an absolutely different position. Possibly during the whole period of the war we have not had such a comparative wealth as that of which wo now dispose. At the present time I have so many shells in reserve that the front and the army arc already begging me not to send more, as they have nowhere to keep them. Thanks to the help of" our Allies, we have many heavy guns—not so many as they have, but in any case, thank God, wo have never had so many as we have at the present time. Never have our supplies of shells for heavy guns been so abundant as now. Never, | perhaps, during the whole period of the war have our circumstances been so favourable as they have come to be at the present time; and • never has theenemy before us been so weak, never have things been so difficult for him. If we do not now give temporary help to our Allies it is only because (let us be frank) wo are all a little ill. And not only a little—we are seriously ill. That is intelligible. In tho course of two and a-half or three months we have had to, do and experience what other nations have succeeded 1 in spreading out over decades at least. 'Of course, no organisationj not even the healthiest and strongest, could digest in so short a time all that Fate has sent us.

A FERVENT APPEAL. But. we must take counsel with our minds, with our hearts, with our sacred obligations to our country, with our duty to our children and grandchildren. Fate itself gives us the possibility of making our Fatherland happy, perhaps for ever, at any rate for a hundred years. And if we do not do it we shall have fastened upon us commercial treaties from which we shall, be unable to shake ourselves free, and our children also. They will have to bear the burden on their shoulders. It will be no justification to say that we, were ill. They will have the right to say: " Why did they not make a last effort to smash an enemy who was already in the throes of death, whom the Frenchman and the Englishman,, had already gripped, and whom the Italian had begun to grip?" We are the sons of Russia, strong, gallant, and dauntless, as the past three .years' of the war have shown. Every one of your regiments has some cause for pride. Impossible that now, when the war is drawing to an end, when, perhaps, one strong push will compel the . German to sue for. peace, when all indications'are that the enemy is exhausted, we are going to fraternise with him at the front. Impossible '.; that in such last minutes our army will not stir its mighty shoulders; shake itself free from this'illness, and finish the war for the glory of our dear Fatherland. Impossible that we shall not fulfil our obligations to our Allies:. / ' Of course, we are weary. Who is there that must not admit it? After three years of war and sitting in the trenches, it is natural to be weary. But then, is not the enemy also weary? Has he then been able to relieve his men? Look, and you. will ■ find that he has brought all his old men to the front. This passing ' illness makes 'us waste precious time, and miss the chance of finishing the war quickly. One good victory, one good push, and I can tell you fearlessly that we shall reach the very conclusion of peace. Each of us •must forget his own interests for a comparatively short time. Then happy days 1 will soon come for us, when each will be able to think of the ordering of his own life and his own welfare. Now each of us must give, according to his strength and possibilities, everything to our exhausted Fatherland. A PETITION, A PRAYER, A COM- - , MAND. You are the picked men of your regiments, and I have for you a petition—a prayer—a command (the General made long pauses between these three words). : Believe me, it ie not easy for me to say that. To think that it is possible to live in such conditions that a commander must appeal to every man with a petition and a prayer to do his work! But we: are ill, a.nd it is out of respect for that illness that I do this, that I do anything that will rouse the love for your country which is slumbering in you. Tell your comrades from me, tell them that the

business of war in a time of war demand's great sacrifices from us. All you, my friends, know, of what I am speaking,, and I will say: nothing more,' for 'it is difiicult for me to talk about it. I,wait in; patience for the moment when *be Lord will enlighten our minds, and-I believe that time is near, and this belief upholds me here. Boon I shall go to the regiments in the hope that the Bus 1 sian -army will burst like a thunderstorm on our noisy, and possibly strong, but nevertheless weakened enemy. And,that thunderstorm--which will rattle on his 1 head will be the last drop, and will finish him, and compel him to accept all our conditions of peace. '■■ Little remains to be done, but we must work. We must take an example from our Allies. Impossible that we, strong and brave, w ill merely read of the deeds of otheve, and will not defend our Russia, and rejoice her with news of our victories. That must not be.

Once more I repeat my petition :/Return to your regiments ; 'tell your comrades that we have much time before 'us to order our own lives, but that we have only a few days in which to finish the war in honour before our children-and grandchildren, before the graves which you have strewn in East Prussia, in the Carpathians, in Galicia, at the very gates of Cracow. This war may be finished without us, but at our expense. ; If our, Allies lose faith;in us, do you think they will remain our friends? No; they, will become our enemies. And will ''our enemies become our friends? No; they will remain our enemies. Rouse the conscience, the desire, the readiness of your comrades, That is all I need. If you fulfil this task, this duty, I take off my .cap and bow low to you (here the General bared his head) ac to an honest, high-minded citizen who has done his duty. ' , ' i ' ■'■ '■ THUNDERS OF APPLAUSE. speech was received with thunders of applause, at the close of which one of the soldiers, on behalf of all his opmrades, gave the assurance that when the time came and their leader said "Advance," they would all go forward as they ever had done. The Com-mander-in-Chief then: embraced the soldier, and said, "I have, kissed your comrade, and in his person, all of you, as token of my burning and constant love to my soldiers. .' I have kissed him as a worthy Russian citizen, in ■ whose heart the free, creative national Russian spirit has a resting place, in ,whom the hope is still alive that we shall speedily get over our illness and rise again." . At the close of the meeting, the soldiers "chaired", their : CommanderiinChief, and would have subjected him to the honorific process known as "rocking" had not his aide-de-camp warned them that he was in indifferent health. ' As . iiwae, they satisfied themselves' with carrying,him back to his motor-car."