THE SOVIET ARMY.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18159, 25 October 1930, Page 4

THE SOVIET ARMY.

TRAINED BY GERMANS. MILITARISATION OF COUNTRY. Germany’s “co-operation” in the development of Russia’s war industry and in the “militarisation” of the country has been officially admitted on several ■ occasions, says the London Daily Mail. The recent revelation that an expert German flying officer was “learning” to fly in Russia, and thus met his death, confirms previous reports. It is evident that German ex-offlcers are directing the building of aeroplanes and airships in Russian factories. In the factory at Voronezh there are six German experts, known locally as the “nemetzkaya Shestiorka" (the German sixl. all of whom are ex-offlcers of the Reichswehr. In the aeronautic works outside Moscow two German ex-ofllecers direct the designing and manufacture of bombers. In Petrograd and Odessa German officers are emploved in the supervision of seaplanes, and the All Soviet Aerial Institute employs a dozen German experts. Aeroplane Mystery. Not all the aeroplanes produced in Russia can be accounted for. According to the latest report by,Voroshiloff, the Red Commissar of War, the output is 60 units a month, while the absorption accounts . for only 24. This leaves 26 units unabsorbed. The output of eight airships shows only four absorbed by the Red forces, and two by the Osoaviakhim, the Aerial and Gas Warfare Association.

There are now 64 chemical factories producing poison gas. Each of these factories employs German experts, at least five of whom are known to be ex-offlcers of the Germany Army. Many Germans are also employed in the war section of the Chemclal Institute—a newly-established centre for research.