A FARMER-GENERAL

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13656, 26 August 1916, Page 3

A FARMER-GENERAL

THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE. By ARTHUR RANSOME. We were in a chateau iu Galicia, belonging to a Count with a Polish name, whose family had fled to Vienna, while he remained, ghostlike, seldom seen, in the old house, observing with satisfaction the care -the Bussians took of his pictures and his furniture, 'W'e dined in the great hall, under the dim portraits of soldiers'of long ago, belonging to another race. Dark-haired, blackeyed warriors looked down from the walls on a staff almost every member of which might have beeu ut Scandinavian, a true descendant of the three Viking brothers with whom the history of Russia begins. The General Coinmantling (I.must name neither him nor his eorps), tall, straight-haired, with hugo white moustache that had once boon gold,' a ruddy complexion, and bright blue eyes, sat at the head of the table. He had placed me at his. side, and for a loug time we talked of everything but war. He was a. vegetarian, like several other well-known Russiau comniandors. He was a little surprised to learn that there were also vegetarians in beef-eating England, A dish of cgj(3 was brought in for him, cooked in some special way. He made me try them. . He spoke then of farming, of his own estate in. the north.' He spoke of the black earth of Galicia, the richest soil in ■ Europe. .We talked -of gardening, and he spoke of his roses, of fishing—and with laughing -'V eyes he remeiiitiered spearing a p } 3 by the light of a torch when the spjng waters Hooded the meadows. "It is a pleasure to talk of-such things," he said, Like most ofthe best of the Bussian officers, he had this in common 1 with our own, that he was not a man of war for war's sake. He wanted to get the war -finished (with. a decisive victory), so as to be free to get back to his fanning. Farming and vegetarianism were' his favourite subjects, and he returned to them again and again.. - '' What Does England Think?'' ■ And then, suddenly, I was made to see this mild, white-haired fanner in a light entirely different. He became, in a imoment,'-the veteran of the Turkish wars,,the soldier who in tile last- twenty months has done'much that will not be forgotten in the history that is to be written. -"What does England think of us?" he asked abruptly., "Is she disappointed that .our stall's.are. lodged, for instance, in chateaux of Galicia instead of in the suburbs of Vienna and Berlinf" - - ■ i told liim how the admiration felt in England for, the. .Russian armies had grown rather than diminished.' during the long, terrible staged of'.the retreat, and that so far-were the English from disappointment in the Bussians that they could not find means to express their admiration for troops which in face of such preponderance of force had escaped the annihilation that had been prepared for them, "if you ask an Englishman," J said,'"what he thinks of the Russians, he will speak not'of flic first advance, but of the heroism of sol-diers-lighting . almost unarmed against an -.ciieinyiiiaguiliiiently equipped." I told .him'that was the Kiigiish way—to' admire a losing light against odds, more than a' win with all the force on the winning side. "Yes," he said, slowly, "we may talk of, that now, for all the world knows it; and, thank God, it is true no. longer. JWe do not now light unarmed. But, then, there were times, weeks together, -when my whole corps did not suffer from an inadequate supply of shells. 'We had not a single shell of any kind. We had no cartridges for our men's rifles. We had no weapons to go round." What ail Army Corps Did, "And that against a concentration of the best artillery of Austria and Germany, served by gimers whose only thought was to fire as many shells as possible in a given time.-' "Yes," admitted the' General, "the. men did .well " "The English will never, forget what they did," said 1; but the-General was not- satisfied, and for a moment was silent, stroking his long white moustaches, and looking at his plate, •lie looked up, and held my eyes with those blue eyes of his, in which the farmer had for the moment entirely given place to the soldier. "I should like you to tell the English that there were things in our advance also of which no tuition need beashamed. . Tliere too, we were fighting iigaiust odds, And then ...... ,1 would liko to tell him of Koziuvka," he added, aside, to his Chief of the Staff; another veteran like himself. "Yes, your excellency,- fell him of Koziuvka,'' said the Chief of the Staff, a smiling elderly man, whose face suddenly hardened. He looked over my head at a picture on the opposite wall, but it was clear enough that tliere wa quite another picture in his miml. "Do you know,'-'said the General, "Hint during the advance this corps had to hold a front of nearly eighty miles' as the crow Hies of mountainous country, and that they did this for four months? That was not less difficult than the retreat. Think what it means, to hold eighty miles wrth one corps. And for four mouths. And then at Koziuvka. . . .'' The Wall of Dead, He stopped for a moment, ami then went on, looking at one or two of the officers' further down the tabic. He spoke low, and the conversation of the others continued merrily. "Those of us who were at 'Ko/.iuvka will 'remember it longer than anything in the retreat. At. Koziuvka our trenches, such as they were, find they wore not at all, like those ivc have-to-day. wno close j to the enemy's, We could talk to them', if we. wished. At first-we could see,; from one trench' to the; other. But; gradualy this became imposihl'e'.Why/: They had not retired.. Nor had we.; No. A wall had begun to.rise between: the trenches; not the sort of wall one ! likes to see—-a wall of dead men. -With; each attack and counter-attack, more bodies were ailed to those already there until between'the two trenches lay a long mound of dead bodies, That was all there was to look 'lit. Kadi side looked out on that wall of corpses. Attacks were made over thai wall, and always added to its height. Each man' who climbed that wall of dead anil de-' caving bodies added another dead'mail to it as soon as his head showed over the top And there wm always men ready to climb.. ..- That was Kozi-' uvkn." And with that the talk'turned once more to the fruit-growing and orchards far awav,