Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-11-21
Two Million Soldiers Ready
for Field When
Armed.
WOMEN IN UNIFORMS
Have Plenty of Heavy Ord
nance But Are Lacking
for Small Arms.
Correspondence of the Associated Press3

Correspondence of the Associated Press)
LONDON, Nov. 2.-"Russia is now
suffering only for want of rifles, and
when she is properly supplied at
least two million additional soldiers
will be thrown into the field with
results which only next spring cam
paign can tell" This is the opinion
of a prominent American mining en-
gineer, who has just returned to Lon
don after spending six months in the
Russian empire mainly in siberia,
where he is the chief engineer OF an
important group of mines. DesCrlb-
ing conditions i'm Russia he said. 'Ihe
depression which prevailed outside
Russia during the great German drive
through Poland was never really dup
Heated in that country Domestic
troubles existed as always, but the
people have made their power felt as
never before, and the only thing that
could cause revolution now would be
the conclusion Of an unfaVorable
peace with the central powers.
Peasants Philosophical
"The people of Russia are enjoying
something in the nature of boom,
and the cost of living Of the RUSSIAN
peasant, who does not require luXur-
les has not appreciably increaseH.
The Russian peasant is not an imagl-
native individual and the losses suf-
fered i'm the war has not greatly I'M
pressed him And besides, the losses
incurred in the great retreat were
unbelievably small, when the magni-
tude Of the fighting is taken into con-
SiderauOn. Even the generally ad-
mitted shortage Of rifles, the vast
age of which has been unprecedented,
is not causing the Russians much con
Germ, as the staff has realized that
the rifle used by infantry Is not an
effective arm The Russian army is
now well supplied with heavy guns
and munitions and the infantry is
being supplied with thousands Of ma
chine guns. In attacking, the Rus
sian infantryman almost invariably
detaches the bayonet from his rifle
and uses it as a knife when he leaps
into the German trenches. He has
even been known to discard both rifle
and bayonet, relying on club to win
trench.
Women i'm Uniform.
For the greater part of the war
we have used Austrian prisoners as
miners in our mines, but lately we
have been receiving Germans from
the government prisoners labor bu-
reau. These Germans in the main are
absolutely unfit for hard labor, most
of them being old men with gray
boards, while others are of the stu
dent class. many Of them wearing
glasses with thick lens. A staff Of
ficer who is closely connected with
the prisoner bureau told me that for
some time on the DNnsk front the
Russians have been capturing from
one to two hundred women weekly.
These were all in German uniform,
and were apparently serving as sol
diers
"In Petrograd I entered the re-
Gently opened museum Of atrocities,
but the horrors displayed there were
too much for me, and feeling deadly
III was compelled to leave the place
without seeing the complete display,
but | was allowed to bring to Eng
land an Austrian rifle cartridge
loaded with an explosive bullet, which
Is really a miniature shrapnel shell
that eXplOdes when a little pluger at
the tip is driven in by contact with
human target
Food Shortage.
'Tn the Scandinavian countries
nothing was talked about except the
food shortage in Germany and some
confirmation of this was given to me
by a Dane, who represents In Berlin
one Of the biggest American packing
companies This Dane declared that
the fat allowance had been reduced
from eleven to seven ounces a person
daily and he stated that the German
working population would have a diff
ficult time getting through the win
ter on this reduced allowance. This
Dane also told me that England was
supplying it's prisoners in Germany
with food
I'm Copenhagen I learned that the
International Harvester company had
recalled all Of its American employees
from Germany, Austria-Hunary, Tur-
KEY and the Balkans and they are
being held in the Danish capital
awaiting orders
shipping owners in the Scandi-
navlan countries are making enor-
nous fortunes out of the war and II
Is said that in Bergen alone this in
1ustry has created 81 new million
aires since hostilities began"