BADLY LED AND VAINLY SACRIFICED.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11392, 24 October 1904, Page 5

BADLY LED AND VAINLY SACRIFICED.

According to the Kieff correspondent .of the Standard, the military staff there does not' regard with any, great enthusiasm tne departure to 'tho front of the ' First Army Corps. "It is largely composed," he -says, "of so-called crack' regiments/ which, make a brilliant show at state parades, v but they are, not noted for « steady .hard work in peaceful times, and the v regimental staffs are chiefly drawn frbm'the upper ranks of an idle aristocracy. Tho leade* 1 of the corps, General Baron Meyendorff, is an old man of the old school of field officers, who ingloriously muddled through the last Turkish War. The lack of public confidence in the capacity of the Russian generals and divisional commanders is now the most noteworthy feature of discontent with tho Tvar. It is only natural that the mass of 'the people from' whom the army is drawn should defend the stubborn valour of their kith and kin, and no one who knows the Russian soldier will for a moment question his reputation as a fighting unit, "but tho popular complaint that he is, in the Far Eastern war, badly led and vainly sacrificed daily grows louder,." , , ,