The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-20
Congestion at VladivOstOk Is
Unprecedented.
Thousands of Cars, Many Loco
motives Rushed From u. s.
PRECIOUS SUPPLIES TIED UP
Fate of Slays Hangs on Move
ment of CargOes.
Men Work With Feverish Haste
to SuccOr Troops.

Vladivostok, June 25 Correspond
ence of the Associated Press) TWEEN
~ thousand American freight cars and
400 American locomotives are due
here from the United States within the
next two months to relieve the con-
gestion of supplies destined for the
Russian armies at the front. The
army corps on the German-A
battle line need guns, rifles and am
munition; Niadivostok will supply
them.
They need armored cars, many hun
dred of the-l, and Wladivostok will
give them these. They need dyna-
mite; they need pig lead and pig cop
per; they need cotton to be made into
clothing; they need food-and Vladi-
vostok hopes to see to it that they get
it all.
Guns From United States.
The gum and rifles and ammunition
are arriving from Japan and the
United States by the steamer load
The armored motor cars are coming
by the hundreds from the United
States. They are being made at De-
troit and Cleveland and other points,
and they are coming out here mostly
by way of Seattle on vessels which sail
direct to VladivOStok
So also is the lead, copper and dyna
mite. AS for the cotton-it is coming
out from New York via Panama in
such vast quantities that more than
rifle congestion of supplies which has
forced Russia to place rush orders for
locomotives and cars to get them off
to the front. 1t is piled high on the
hills back of the city, waiting for its
turn to be forwarded to Moscow and
other cities, to be manufactured into
blankets and uniforms for the soldiers.
From Great Britain have come guns
for the navy.
Shipped to Black Sea.
they are shipped by railroad to tho
Black sea, to be mounted on the war;
ships Russia is building. From France
has come ammunition, from the
United States have come several nine
inch gunS-also to find their place on
Russian warships in the Black sea;
and above all is coming barbed wire
from America-an amazing quantity
of it to protect the trenches of the
Russian armies.
are arriving in such number and with
such rapidity that they cannot be ac-
commodated at the docks. plan of
permanent enlargement of the port
has been temporarily put aside in
favor of provisional enlargement.
Huge gangs of men are building pom
toon piers and makeshift docks. Yes
sells unable to squeeze into the piers
are tranS-Shipping their cargo to light
ers, but a shortage of lighters has
The Russians are building moro
lighters.
Vladivostok, they believe, is to save
the day for the Russian army, and
every possible human effort is made
to forward these precious supplies to
their destination at the front.
Incarnation of War.
The feverish activity at the water
front is duplicated elsewhere in this
great port, which, while peaceful in
itself, is the very incarnation of war.
Every month new armies are sent
away to the west. For 500 miles to
the north of the fortress of Vladivo-
stok proper extends a series of forti-
fled places. All these when not used
as prisons for German prisoners of
war, serve as drill grounds for Rus
sian recruits. The reSerViStS come in
from all points in the eastern part of
the empire, and within six months are
turned into soldiers. Then they are
hurried across Siberia.