RUSSIA'S MAN OF ACTION

North Otago Times, Volume CIII, Issue 13651, 19 August 1916, Page 2

RUSSIA'S MAN OF ACTION

GENERAL BRUSILOFF.

KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, AND GETS IT. ■.. Were 1 king, emperor, or sovereign people, I would have no generals in my service older 'than forty-live. If a man is not capable of commanding an.army at that age, he never will be. After that age lie loses more and more every year the energy, .the enterprise, the desire to be up and doing, not waiting to see what the' other side intends; all the qualities which' are so necessary in war.

. Yet to this rule 1 would make an exception, and it would be in favour of General Alexis Bnisiloff, who has just scored silcli a signal .victory over the Austrians. Never did anyone illustrate more aptly the saying that "a man is. as old as he feels." General Brusiloff is sixty-three, only two years younger than General lvanoff, whom lie succeeded a few weeks ago in the chief command upon Russia's southwestern front. In everything but fact there is twenty years' difference between the two men.. lvanoff- is big, slow-moving, old-fashioned in his views. Bnisiloff is .spare, alert,, 'modern. As I sat and talked to him in the bare room from which he directs the operations of one of the three groups into which the Russian armies arc divided, I felt atoiice that his mind worked quickly, that lie is ; for/never-ceasing "push and go," that he is -first, last, and all the 'time a iuan'.o£action. . .The Look of,An Eagle. His face tells this. Dark, steady, searching eyes, and a nose with a high, commanding, curved bridge, give him the look of an eagle. No pale cast 'of thought here. No student or professor, this. Firm chin, vigorous' jaw line. When this man begins a task he will carry it through to the end, as he carried his • Carpathians campaign. It. was he who overcame all, the difficulties of. that, surprising adventure..; Spite .of winter, spite of deep snows iliid tofrible cold, he pushed, on till he,had won the whole'ridge of the'mountains,' and was ready to push his troops down into Hungary. No fault of his, that the. efforts and the victories naught availed us. He has his place in history. He has made new records in the annals pf. war: Never before, I believe, lias an army taken prisoners to the number of twice its own strength. General Brusiloff's army averaged about ISO,OOO, It never, exceeded 200,000. At limes it dropped as low as 100,000. He .captured in a,ll 360,000 Germans and Austrians, with 400 guns, "And how many machineguns']" I asked him. "I forget. Thousands," he replied. ' "Keep the Enemy Guessing." • His success he attributes to the courage of his troops and to the policy which he-followed of never giving the enemy any rest. "The best strategy and the most successful tactics lie. in attack," he told me. "Don't let the enemy choose where he will hit you. Hit him first; keep on hitting him, Give him no- rest." The general's closecropped, stubbly hair seemed to bristle as he spoke. His longish, but thin aud little-noticed grey moustache quivered. "Yes, that is the way. Always attack. Even if he is stronger,. attack him. Keep him guessing. Puzale him. Make him wonder what you'are up to," "But that means heavy losses!" If Only We Had Had Munitions, '"No, no, not if your attack succeeds. Attacks which fail, like the German,attacks at Verdun, arc terribly' expensive. But successful attacks cost very little. If only we had had munitions this lime last year. . . ;" Ho shook nis head regretfully. He half, closod his eyes, He could sec again the dim vista of the plains'of Hungary, upou •which- he looked down from the Carpathian crests. He. was thinking of what might have been. ... But men of action do not give way to futile regret. "Now it is different," he said briskly. "We have abundance of everything, as you have seen for yourself. We are ready, aud we shall 'be very glad when we get orders to profe it." lvanoff and Bnisiloff. General lvanoff was immensely popular in this south-west command, but General Brusiloff, by his record and his character, has already, I think, inspired more conlidence. In almost every way the two men arc curiously unlike. They, have only one thing in common, that ttiey both belong to the regular army, and not to the general staff. In Russia, as in other Continental armies, staff officers are separated, usually from the very start of their career. As a rule, they arc given the high commands. Both lvanoff and Brusiloff reached their position withoufthe aid of this valuable stepping stone, and both reached them by hard, useful work. In every other respect they are at opposite poles. lvanoff, the son of a peasant proprietor, has, remained in essentials a peasant all his life. He lives in the simplest fashion, Prefers soldiers'food to any other, Sleeps on a soldier's truckle-bed. When he was in command at KM' and had a palace to live iu, he furnished very plainly three small rooms and lived in these, leaving the rest .empty. I need hardly add, alter this, that lie is unmarried. Ho might have- advanced himself by marrying a rich wife. He preferred to be a bachelor and play his'own hand. A Favourite At Court. • General Brusiloff's .career has been as different as possible from that of General Ivandff, therefore his mind and temperament have developed along different lines. He is of good family, went to the Russian Eton (the "Pages' Corps"), and then began life in a fashionable cavalry regiment. Ability and influence combined to make his advancement rapid. He held many good positions, was reckoned a favourite at Court, distinguished himself as a daring rider, encouraged cavalry officers to go in for polo and cross-country steeplechases, was popular in Petrograd society.. Then came the war to try out the capacity and characters of men, Brilliant War Record, He began in 1914 as the commander of an army corps. Soon he had an army under him, and his army did the most brilliant work that has been done by any of the 'combatants. Now he has deservedly been promoted to a still higher command, and all who have worked with him are sure that he will win further fame. "He is So straightforward," one of his officers told me, "and so direct. He knows what he wauts. : and what he wants he must have,'' In his mode of life he follows the habit 3of Western Europe. His interests are those of cultivated people.' He talks French like a Frenchman, and says he will learn English after the war, "When will that be, inon General 1 ?" I asked him, ."if, as I am sure, we are to tight till we have gained a 1 complete victory, it will take us some time, The German people themselves might bring about peace before then by overthrowing their Government. But it would be foolish lo reckon upoii anything of that kind, in all probability the war must' be won by land lighting. We are ready here, and I am very glad to see that yon have decided to make your British Army as large as possible. Wo shall have to exert all our strength.'"—Hamilton Fyl'e, in the Daily Mail,