THE RUSSIAN COMMISSARIAT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 13

THE RUSSIAN COMMISSARIAT

ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 20. In a conversation with the correspondent of the “Russkoe Slovo,” General Gouber, head of the Russian Commissariat Department, gave the following interesting particulars of the commissariat service:— “Bread is distributed to the troops every day except on those days when military operations are in progress, when the men are supplied with biscuits. The Commissariat Department has at its disposal some tens of thousands of cattle, but up to the present the forces have not drawn upon the department in this respect, purchasing what cattle they require in the local markets. Orders have been given for a quantity of frozen meat to be prepared at Omsk. At Nikolaieff, on the Amur, stores of fish have been prepared, as well as 300,000 poods (4838 tons) of butter. A hundred thousand poods (1613 tons) of preserved vegetables are being obtained from European Russia, while at Kharkoff and in the Ussuri territory stores of sauerkraut have been got ready for use in the hospitals and for soldiers suffering from illness. Tea is on. sale at the front. Owing to the havoo wrought by the rains on the roads, the transport of wheat had to be suspended for some time, but now it ig proceeding in good order, and at Blagovestchensk there are already nearly 4,000,000 poods (64,514 tons) of wheat, which will be transferred to Kharbin as soon as navigation is reopened. The troops are also allowed brandy, but only on special orders from the commanders of army corps. “Train-loads of warm clothing and boots are arriving every day, and the troops who have just been sent to the theatre of Avar are provided with a new outfit of warm clothing and two pairs of boots each. The Commissariat Department at present has in hand 200,000 complete seta

of clothing and 400,000 pairs of boots. In January I am to reoeive a further 820,000 ■eta of clothing and 600,000 pairs of boots; in February 180,000 complete outfits of clothing, and in March pairs of boots. In the spriVig it is proposed to replace the present outfits by woollen jerseys to be worn under the tunic.

“The question of forage and fuel is a complicated one, for before long straw, wood, and kao-liang for warming purposes will all have to b© brought from a distance, and yet there is no transport available for the purpose'. Orders have been given for the distribution of 44)0,000 warm blankets fc»r the use of the soldiers in the underground burrows they have made along the lines of the trenches. Officers fet a daily allowance of a pound of meat, svo pounds of bread, half a pound of meal, and portions of tea and sugar/'