RUSSIA'S LAST HOPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

RUSSIA'S LAST HOPE.

GENERAL LINEVITCH.

Kuropatkin, when lie was given command of the Russian arm}' against Japan, had at least one enemy in liis own ranks. General Linevitch, it is said, refused to serve under the new commander, and was given a separate command at Vladivostok. To-day his enemy has succeeded him, and General Linevitch commands the Russian forces.

General Linevitch (Nikolai Petrovitch) is an infantry officer, who has seen none of the big campaigns of the last half of the nineteenth century, but has had a great deal of experience corresponding to that which British officers get on the frontier of India in their smaller expeditions.

In height about sft 6in, his full face, were his chin shaven, has often been compared to that of Lord Roberts, but in profile his distinctly Muscovite-tipped nose spoils the resemblance. He is in no way a powerful mail to look at, but lean and of slight build; and apparently he has led a less rapid life than most Russian officers. He was, in fact, one of the few officers of his force who could be said by a sportsman to be "in good training." HIS CONDUCT IN CHINA. That he is dashing and brave is undoubted. General Stoessel could not be induced to advance towards Pekin in July, 1900, but Linevitch, when lie aTrived, was disgusted at the delay, and concurred at onoe •in the views of the British, American, and Japanese generals then at Tientsin. Of the behaviour of the troops under Lineviteh's command en route to Pekin it is needless to say more than that they showed the Chinese all the horrors of war. That Linevitch in his despatches is as little worthy of confidence as Kuropatkin is shown by the fact that, after the battle of Yangtsun, where the Russian casualties, all told, did not exceed 50, he telegraphed to the Tsar saying that lie had lost 500 killed and wounded, and much exaggerated the altogether minor part played by his forces on that-day. At the assault on Pekin, on August 14, 3900, as his troops filed past him to the attack, he made an amazing speech to them, giving them license to behave like savages, and it was Linevitch, too, who, after having, at the conference of the allied generals, decided that August 13 should be devoted to reconnaissance, the 14th to concentration, and: the 15th to the assault on Pekin, tried to steal a march on his colleagues, and by a rapid coup de main on the early moriing of the 14th force Ids way into Pekin and snatch the laurels from those whom he had allowed to bear the heat and burden of the day on the march up from Tientsin, but he found the Chinese on the .iookoitf for him, and was rather severely handled. THE GRAND LOOTER. When the triumphal march through the Forbidden City took place on August 28, 1900, General Linevitch, having'previously agreed with the other generals that no war correspondents were to accompany the forces, gave them permission to do so after they had, in accordance with his own instructions, been refused this permission by the staff of their, own country' 6 forces, and liis act gave rise to much unmerited complaint against the British general and his international colleagues. A .memorable incident look place about this time. At a conference of the allied generals General Linevitch stated that lie had 18,000 men in and around Pekin, whereupon bluff old General Chaffee, the gallant commander of the American forces, slapped the table with "his fist, and said, "Well, that's a darned lie anyhow." This was interpreted to Linevitch, who knows no a,nguage other than his own, but he merely said, "Da——da—da." When the Summer Palace was occupied General Linevitch and the superintendent of the Russian Red Cross Society (specially deputed by the Tsar) stripped it of practically everything worth taking, and shortly after Linevitch complained to Everybody that lie feared he was a ruined man, because there was some talk of vying Customs duties in Port Arthur on the loot he had shipped! This, he complained, if exacted; would amount to so immense a sum that he would be hopelessly bankrupt. HIS RECORD. General Linevitch was not in any way personally concerned . 'in the strained ' relations which arose between Russia and Great Britain over the Tientsin railway station. This trouble really originated in land-grabbing and claim-jumping operations in which the Russian military agent had a pecuniary interest. Linevitch is anything but a young man. He is, indeed, nearly seventy years of age, Kuropatkin being his junior by ten years. He began/his soldier's life in "the Crimean war, and was conspicuous by his services fa the Turkish . Avar twenty years later. Once during that campaign lie distinguished himself greatly, in spit® of severe wounds, by forcing the Turks to retire from a strong position. Linevitch served, too, in the Caucasus, and it was he who. first led the Russian' army into Manchuria. ,He raised the first battalions of Siberian sharpshooters, the nucleus of the Siberian Army Corps, and had command of the Russian troops at the relief' of the Legations in China. It was from Linevitch that the Tsar received a telegram saying that his troops were the first- to enter Pekin, and one of the general's most precious possessions is a message from bis Sovereign congratulating him upon the " rapid occupation" of Pekin, and conferring upon Him the Order of St.' George. It is thought that the jealousies of the Russian generals, which have been the curse of Russia since the war began, have been specially marked between Kuropatkin and, his successor. ' " CONTEMPT FOB THE JAPANESE. The general is a Russian rara avis. He is a good husband and father, a temperate man/a plucky, but by no means great general. * Unless assisted by a most able staff, lie would have no chance of beating a Japanese force on equal terms, much less in such a condition of inferiority as is now the case. - The Japanese will 'be delighted to beat him, because he treated them with so much . contempt in 190 C, and invariably said that any debatable matter would be "settled by the European generals," as if the Japanese were not- civilised! He is beloved it is true, by his men—that is, by the troops from Eastern Siberia; but unless Russia can produce a staff officer who is infinitely aDler than Napoleon and Von Moltkc at their best, Linevitch has no more chance of gaining a' serious victory within the next twelve months than Roslidestvenski had of taking his fleet into Vladivostok.