RUSSIAN ARMY’S BOAST

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4528, 7 April 1934, Page 5

RUSSIAN ARMY’S BOAST

MOST MECHANISED IN THE WORLD.

“HORSE-POWER PER SOLDIER.”

In making his report to the ComMunist Congress on the Soviet’s military preparations, M. Voroshiloff, Commissary for War, once again uttered a warning to Japan. He said:

“War against us will be a long and hard war. It will mean fighting against the Bolsheviks of to-day. This war will cost dear those who start it.”

The Japanese, he continued, were certainly ready to stake everything on one throw, But during the last two years M* Stalin and his Central Committee given their entire attention to strengthening the Far Eastern Army and were continuing co do so.

M. Voroshiloff told the Congress that the Red Army was -now the most highly mechanised force in the world. It was more highly mechanised than the American or French French army, and even than the British, which had hitherto been the most mechanised of all modern forces. To show the speed at which this supremacy had been reached, M. Voroshiloff expressed it in terms of horse-power per soldier of the Red Army. In 1929 this figure was 2.6 h.p.; in 1930 it reached 3.7; and last year 7.74 h.p. In regard to the Air Force M. Voroshiloff said that M. Stalin had not left his colleagues a minute’s peace until they had forced the pace and built big bombers and improved all other types. ~ . , The Navy, M. Voroshiliff said, had been strengthened and improved. “We cannot boast yet,” he proceeded, “of this new fleet’s strength. There are no ships of the line and no aircraft carriers. This means that we cannot take the offensive. But we do not want to attack anybody. These light craft of ours, together with our aeroplanes and submarines, will cripple an attacking enemy.”