The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-10
WAR ECHOES

New York Tribune: The British Par llament was asked yesterday to provde
 for the support of 100000 soldiers. This
 request must be taken to show that 3,000,
 GOO troops will be available for service be-
 fore the year ends.
 There has been a great indefniteness about the estimates of available strength
 made by the British war office. It has
 been admitted that new armies about 1. .000,0 600 strong would be ready for serv-
 ice on the continent this spring. But
 heretofore the total of volunteers like
 ly to be raised had been put at about D. .000. The great handicap to the devel- opment of British military strength has
 been a lack of equipment rather than
 lack of men. The volunteers could not be clothed, armed and officered, and until the deficiency in material could be made good there was little reason for stimulat-
 ing enlistments. Evidently the limita- tions on Lord Kitcheners organizing &C., tivities have been largely removed.
 The war in Europe is going to be de-
 cided by second and thiro line troops.
 Each belligerent will have to draw to
 the limit on national resources. If Ger
 many puts 9,000,000 men in all in the field,
 France will have to put 100000 and Great
 Britain a like number. When it comes down to what the military writers call
 the levy en masses, all material will be
 found to be of about the same value and
 Germany will cease to possess the tre- mendous advantage she enjoyed at the outbreak of the war through her superb ority in well trained soldiers.
 Great Britain has had to do in one year the work which the great military na- tions of the continent have spread over
 many years. 1t is an enormous tribute to the energy and public spirit of her people that she is already approaching test on equal terms both with her allies and with her enemies.
 Stanley Washburn in the American Re- view of Reviews: There is no question about the Russians today When I first came to Russia J wrote story from Petrograd in which I mentioned the new spirit of Russia and the willingness with which the troops were going to the war. After having been at the front and seen hundreds of thousands of the same sol
 diers on the roads, in the trenches and in the hospitals I am of the opinion that what I then wrote is absolutely true None of these pathetic units in the great game wanted the war, and I suppose every one of them prays for it's con-
 cluson, but almost without exception
 they take it philosophically and as a
 matter of course. Their hardships and their losses, their priva tions and their wounds, all are accepted as inevitable The absolute hopelessness one saw on their faces in Manchuria is not seen in !, these days The keynote of their appear ance wherever I have seen them in this war is d good-natured cEecrfulness and readiness to accept the necessary in a cause the general nature of which most 1 of them understand. The Russian soldier Is to me the most philosophical individ- l ual in the world. I have seen him in the l hospitals with legs and arms gone, head ! mashed in, ghastly wounds of all sorts,
 and if he has the strength to speak at all he whispers "Nichivo,'" the equivalent
 of which in English is, What differ
 ence does it make anyway"
 1 After getting a glimpse of the men and
 the munitions that permeate the life be-
 hind the army one is not surprised at | the feats that these same men, backed
 b ytheir organization and transport, are 1 performing every day on the actual field of battle itself. While it is true that many of the recent actions Lave been rear guard affairs where it has been perfectly
 obvious that the enemy was making a stand only long enough to permit him to get out his impedimenta at his leisure, | it is equally true that there have been other actions where he had not the slight
 est idea in the world of leaving unless l he had to do so.