The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1917. RUSSIA PREPARING.

Southland Times, Issue 17969, 9 March 1917, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1917. RUSSIA PREPARING.

It is good to hear that some apprehension has been caused in Germany by preparations on a large scale behind the Russian lines for the resumption of military operations. Though there has been active fighting on the Eastern front weather conditions still make a big offensive impossible. Not before May will the Russian Generals be able to set their armies in motion. 1 It was the sth of June last year when Brussiloff launched his great attack between the Pripet marshes and the frontier of Bessarabia; this year our eastern Allies may open the ball earlier. The report of colossal military preparations behind the Russian lines comes from the Berliner Tageblatt and no doubt rests upon good information, but it would be radh to conclude on such slight evidence that the Russians are even now adequately supplied with guns, rifles and ammunition. All along Russia has been enormously handicapped by a deficiency in material. She has had serious political and industrial troubles, but these have not been the greatest obIstacles to success, Russia was not a highly organised industrial country like Britain or Prance at the beginning of the war, and she was not able to increase her output of guns and munitions with the same phenomenal rapidity as these countries. Russia has always been dependent on the Allies for supplies, and the ability of the Allies to make up Russia’s deficiencies is restricted by the fact that there is only one route to Russia at the present time, and that is open to traffic for only part of the year. It is not likely that Russia is yet able to utilise to the full her resources in men—her armies will be limited by the number of guns and rifles and the reserves of ammunition available. Mr Lloyd George made reference to Russia in one of his most recent speeches. He had just returned from the Allies’ Conference at Rome, and speaking to bis audience in the Guildhall on 11th January he said that one thing struck him more and more after each of these Conferences of the Allies and that was i the increasing extent to which the Allied peoples were looking to Great Britain. He passed on later to speak 1 of the handicap under which Russia I had laboured and was still labouring. He pointed out that it was a war of equipment. The Roumanians were driven back because they were not equal to the Germans in mechanical 1 equipment. The Roumanian peasant was as doughty a fighter as any in the field, but he had never had much chance. “As. for the Russian,” said Mr Lloyd George, “the way in which with bare breast he has fought for two years and a half with inferior guns, insufficient rifles, inadequate supplies of Ammunition, is one of the world’s tales of heroism.” The probability is that so far as material is concerned Russia is still to some extent inferior to the enemy, but the handicap cannot now be nearly so heavy, and the Russians ought to be very much stronger this summer than ever before. If we knew how much stronger we could perhaps form some idea of the assistance which the Anglo-French offensive in the West will receive from Russian co-opera-tion. One thing is certain—the Russians will give to the utmost limit of their power. They may be at a disadvantage as regards equipment, they are certainly at a disadvantage as regards communications, but to some extent they manage to equalise conditions by sheer valour and determination. This summer we are likely to

have the Brussiloff offensive over again, conducted on a larger scale with more men and with better equipment. News of the preparations now being made has reached Germany, and it is a good sign that Germany feels some perturbation.