THE RED ARMY.

Northern Advocate, 24 July 1923, Page 6

THE RED ARMY.

STRENGTH AND ARMAMENTS,

CAVALRY AND AIR DEVELOP MENT.

There is a good deal of vague impressionist writing about, the Red Army, and so, being an officer myself, I will give the hard facts about this mysterious organisation, says the Warsawcorrespondent of the "Daily Mail."

At the beginning of 1923 the strength of the army had fallen from 950,000 to 800,0*0; 150,000 belonged to non-regu-lar formations. There are 280,000 men in the infantry, 60,000 in the cavalry, 7000. in the technical units, and 30,000 in the navy. The non : regular formations are occupied as follows: The Che Iva's frontier units contain 50,000 men, and it 3 internal units 60,000. The return of arms is as follows: Rifles, 2,000,000; machine guns, 14,500; light machine guns, 5700; cannon, shells, over- 3,000,000; small arms and munitions, one billion. By an order of January 26 last the war establishment of a division consists of a total reckoned strength of 15,000 and 6500 horses, comprising three infantry regiments, three squads of cavalry, three batteries of field artillery, three howitzers, and all the usual details — sappers, engineers, munition columns, etc.,

There are l'. n > aeroplane factories, but | only five are now working —two in Mos- | cow, one in Petrograd, one in Penza, J and one in Odessa. The two factories in 'Moscow and the factory in Petrograd turn aut, roughly, a dozen Thone and Salmson motors, and the Dux factory produces half a dozen Hispanosuosiza motors monthly. The development of aviation, which is in the hands of a committee of three, with Trotsky at the head, expected to have 10,000 aeroplanes in 1924, with the corresponding personnel. AIR POWER. "While I was in Russia, the Reds got many cargoes "of aeroplanes from Italy, England and Germany, via Constantinople, from Prussia to Petrograd. They bought 100 from the Ansaldi factory at Turin last year, but they have probably not got move than 200 reliable 'planes owing to breakdowns and repairing difficulties. Development is hampered by lack of technical knowledge and fuel. Alcohol mixed with petrol is used instead of pure , ppfroi. The-e are four schools for pilots. the best of which is at Moscow.

Probably 50 Germans are employed, including those in the service between Berlin and Ivonigsberg, and most of the pilots are officer-pilots of.the old Russian Army.

Realising the necessity pf producing officers from the working classes, the Bolsheviks have established- many military schools which are more numerous and better equipped than similar schools in America- and England, beginning with the v General Staff Academy at Moscow , the Arts and Engineering Academy at Petrograd, and embracing special schools for infantry, cavalry, signals, ,etc.

There are but 30 in all of these establishments, but the students revolt against Marxist dogmatism and have a professional contempt for commissars generally, who, ignorant of military affairs, are often cowardly.

COMMUNIST ARMY,

This source of danger for Communism ij also to be found in the civil uiiversities, where the sons of workmen, if they are really able and industrious, inevitably reject Marxism and develop all the characteristics of a proud and victorious class. Hence there have been wholesale expulsions secretly from the universities and arrests' of military students.

The idiocy of the Bolsheviks' system was proved to me by one of the professors, who showed me a lecture on mathematics which he was obliged to submit to an ignorant member.

Nevertheless, in every military school there is a commissar for political training of troops alongside the officer for technical training. The Bolsheviks believe that in this way they will form a Communist army, but in my opinion their task is hopeless.

Military discipline is severe, and officers have regained all their pre-war military smartness. There has been no large movement of troops recently, in spite .of a lot of bluff and wild speeches by Trotsky, and false repoits of concentration, purposely set afoot by Bolsheviks to puzzle and alarm. CAVALRY STRENGTH. The last things the Reds want is war. The Russians are really reducing their army to (500,000, owing to economic causes, but the fighting efficiency will be increased. The reduction was due to a conf:rence of military commanders held at Moscow last May. The conference worked out a remarkably simple and efficient, scheme of reorganisation, which facilitates plans for mobilisation, reduces administrative

machinery, increases the proportion of artillery to machine guns, and purifies the corrupt supply service. The -eorganisation, which is being rushed through, shows much energy and ability, and greatly increases the army's efficiency. The Red Army is devoting much attention to the cavalry, being convinced that cavalry will play a great role in the next war with Poland. Tin cavalry is the most efficient [>if't of the army, and the superiority has recently been increased by changes enhancing fire and mobility by the reduction of the impedimenta and the

increase of machinc guns. The old cavalry division had 9(5 heavy machine guns and no light ones, the new has 96 heavy and 9G light guns. There was a similar doubling of chine guns in the infantry regiments.