RUSSIA'S PART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16098, 11 December 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

RUSSIA'S PART.

BY LIEUT.-COLONEL A A. GRACE, K.-.r.A.

The French nation is fighting for its existence, and has been so fighting for & year and four months. The Italians are fighting to regain territory wrested forcibly from them by the Austrians, and to regain a strategically defensive border between them and their hereditary enemies, Britain is fighting to prevent the aggressive Teutons from dominating Europe and to prevent them from absorbing first the liltle ; countries and then the great. Russia is i righting for much the same reason, but | primarily for the preservation of the Slav ; peoples outside her borders. None of the j members of the Great Alliance is fighting for .sell-aggrandisement ; all are fighting I for the good of Europe, for the good of the ! world, fighting with a self-sacrifice unequalled in the world's historv, with match- ; less heroism, with a certain knowledge that thei- cause is just, with a sure hope of victory, a hope guaranteed bv their strength, theeir resources', their unity of purpose and their determination. But of all the Great, Allies, Russia has been called on, up to the present-stage of the war, to make the greatest sacrifices and to suffer the greatest losses, both in regard to life and property. Adopting the strategy of 1812, when* she was seriously menaced by the invader, she has abandoned cities, towns, and provinces to the enemy, in order that she may deal with him decisively in circumstances as regards plaoe and time favourably to herself and frightfully disadvantageous to him. As each month goes by she increases lin strength and he decreases. As the winter advances the hope of the Germans being able to break the Russian armies grows less and less, while, fighting on their native soil, and in their native climate, the hope of final victory rises high in the hearts of the Russians)— have got their foes where they can best deal with them *nd deal with "them they will with a thoroughness which will leave nothing lacking, in the same way as thev dealt with Napoleon and his hosts one hundred and three years ago. To-day all Russia is frozen hard, and the icy winds, blowing from the Arctic zone, sweep over the level plains, with no ranges of mountains to break them, and no warn zephyrs from the Gulf Stream to temper their frigid bitterness to the ease-loving soldiers of the German landwehr and landsturm who man the hundreds of miles of trenches from the north of Courland to the borders of Galicia. As has been pointed out those trenches are frozen hard as concrete. Thev must have been dug before the frost "set in, since to dig them now is almost impossible. Doubtless they were well due, deeply, permanently—with a view to holding back the fiercest, attacks of the Russians. Out of the endless plain the Germans have dug their defensive line, in the full and certain knowledge that their own aggressive movement in the east had come to an end ; in the hope that with good fortune they may stem any aggressive movement which the Russians mav make against them. 1 want to make that point particularly clear: that the Germans entrenched from fourtland southwards because they could force their eastward advance no farther, and in order to assume the defensive. It follows, therefore, that the attitude of the Russians is the reverse. Though thev, too, are entrenched from Courland to Galicia, it is merely in order that thev may accumulate their strength till such time as they are able to assume the offensive. That strength will consist not only of numbers but of guns and munitions of war. They need be in no great hurry to strike. thev may, with advantage, let the Germans have their fill of the terrible cold of a Russian winter, but they will be almost certain to strike while the ground is frozen, before the thaw sets in in the spring. Thus we see the Great Allies straining every nerve to pour munitions into Russia, by way of Kola, the new ice-free Russian, port, by way of the Trans-Siberian railway : thus we see Russia raising and training new armies which Lord Kitchener is reported to have said he will have equipped next March, armies which well may number 6,000,000 of troops. We now begin to see the full scope of the Russians' plan of campaign, and what it means to the Germans. Row is the German general staff, with its diminishing resources and armies, to meet the impending herculean blow which Russia is preparing? While in the East the nation of the Tsar gathers together its enormous strength, in the west, Britain, herself a nation of tremendous potentiality, is arming, arming, ever arming. In March, we are told, her great war leader will have placed 4,000,000 troops under arsm. In March Russia will be ready to strike. In March, Kaiser, beware " the Ides of March ! ! ! That will be a great blow, whenever it is struck, but if it falls before the thaw, when King Frost still holds the Russian plains in his icy grip, then observe how awful it will be for the Germans if their line of frozen entrenchments is forced, their defensive line broken, and their armies compelled to retire. It will be impossible to make new defensive lines in the frozen .ground before the advancing Russian armies will be upon them. In other words, if the Germans in frozen Russia can be forced to retreat bv superior armies, then there will be. little "chance of their being able to make an effective stand except on a long, previously-prepared line ; there is every chance of their being overwhelmed because of naturally strong positions there are none, because" all the frozen rivers are easily crossed, and because they will find it impossible to rlefend themselves in a country which winter renders increasingly difficult of defence. Another point to be noted is that to the side which has a preponderance of artillery and ammunition the power of the offensive is increased in Russia in winter, because high explosive shells and all shells which burst on impact with the ground are much more deadly in frozen ground than they would be "when the soft earth might smother them ; and Russia will not rtrike until she possesses that preponderance •of artillery and ammunition which at least three great nations are striving day and night to give her. Yes, when Russia strikes it will be a tremendous blow, certainly a shattering blow, possibly a decisive blow. It may also be taken for granted that when that blow is struck, a great blow will be struck simultaneously from the west. It would be follv for the two blows to be struck separately when they can be made simultaneously, and so prevent the Germans from using their internal lines of communication to advantage. Rut Russia's task, while it primarily includes the crippling of Germany in the east. aI?o includes. the restoration of the Servians to their lost lands and independence. It was for Servia that Russia first mobilised her forces against Austria, and she will not lay down the sword until Servia is once more a sovereign State. But that need not be done to-day; it can lie easily done when once the" German power is broken. The same argument applies to the score which Russia has against Turkey. Without cause oi provocation Turkey declared war on" Russia by bomba-dine Odessa. Re sure that it will be the last time in her history that Turkey will perform such an action, because, when the power of the Teutonic nations is broken, then not only Russia, but Britain, France and Italy, will see to it that Turkey, if she is permitted any longer to exist even in an attenuated form, will be quite powerless to harm any nation. In a war of exhaustion with Germany, in a fight to a finish, Russia cannot be vanquished. Numbers, the nature and vastness of her territory, her happy alliance with Britain, which assures "her & constant stream of supplies from without the naturally dogged nature of her people, the very nature and organisation of her government, all make her a most difficult nation to conquer. In aggression sure, if slow, it may he confidently expected that when she puts forth her full strength to accomplish her part In this war the Teuton rare will be .shaken from Berlin to Vienna, from Konigsberg to Mulhausen.