The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-18
distinguished

Athens, Oct 18=A distinguished military authority Of one of the allied powerss who has just completed a stay of several months in Russia, with summary of the situation at the time when the Emperor of Russia took personal command of the land and naval forces of the Empire.
 "It is useless to deny the gravity of the situation in Russia, the offic- CT in question said, .sbut it would be quite as erroneous to regard Russia's position today as desperate,4 or even as one of imminent danger. The
 z7orale o9 the Russian forces is abso- E ltely untouched by. the long series
 retreats. The Russian people are
 Or the war to a man, and every de- feat has served only to confirm them
 their stubborn determination to
 rive every German from Russian -oiI. Were the government to under
 ake to make a separate peace for
 Russia now it would have to face ] spontaneous and flaming insurrec- tAon in all parts of the country.
 ssThis is only one side the medal, however The change in the supreme command of the imperial armies has had it's drawbacks. The Grand Duke FTicholas NichoIaievitch was never a great tactician, nor did he ever pre- tend to be one. But he had the con- fideuce of his officers and the abso- Iute faith of his men. The latter the Emperor will also have-perhaps even to a greater extent that his great uncle=for the Emperor of all the sRussiass is almost a religious figure to the average Russ an. But how much confidence he will inspire in his of ftcers is another matter. They know that when Nicholas Nicholaievitch said a thing he meant it. He was like a. rock in his decisions. and syithal fundamentally just and of open mind. His officers could depend up- on him, and they did depend upon him. And, it had an excellent effect throughout the army.
 With the Emperor the Russians fear it may be different. In the first place, he not only is not a soldier, but he very strong advocate of. world peace. He has retained confi-, dence in former Minister of War Soukh honlinoff in whom certainly no one else has any confidence and who is generally regarded in Russia as an Hincon1pe who with Rasspoutin, has had a very sinister influence on the Emperor
 s"Fhe Emperor himself, also, recall ed to office when, withA much diffi-' culty he had finally been got rid of s. V. RoukhIoff, who, now occupies sthe most important civil post in the Empire-that of the Ministry of Communi cations, and who instead of planning to transport arms and muni- tions to armies in desperate need of them, is intent upon working out na-- tioua1ist theories of his own of Rus sfa for the R ussians. In place of ac- cepting a very favorable American offer to-erect factories in Russia for the re-assembling of American war materials by those familiar with the work, Rouxhloff insisted on having the work done by RUssians totally unfamiliar with it, in factories which the Russians took ten times as long to construct as the Americans would have required.
 On the financial side the situation is almost as-bad. The Minister, P. l.. Bark, is a man of no very signal abil- ity who knows enough, however, to be gvided- largely spy.sssais French < and British colleagues. But ChlpoIl, the head of the state bank, has given rise to no little criticism of his capacity zin Russia by his insistence on guard ing the gold reserve of the Empire intact, whatever happens to Russian exchange.
 sIt is the Emperor's willingness to keep men like these in office under present critical conditions which has filled the intelligent Russian with ap- prehension at the prospect or his ac- tive partici patton in military affairs at this uncertain juncture. No one in Tl ussia. is ignorant that the Emperor takes his traditional position as the father of ,his- people with almost de- -vout seriousness. It is s"scarce4y pos sib1e to conceive to what unexpected action his conviction that he is called to be a second St Vladimir may lead him. His intentions are admitted to be excellent But Russia could do with a little less exalted purpose and little more practical efficiency.
 'SThe. same may be said of the Duma With the most patriotic -tntentions in