The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-02-23
Russian Soldiers
Without Food And
Clothing See No
Hope Ahead

diers who have been in the trenches
for more than three years are no less
amazed than civilians at the rapid
turn of events in Russia and stand in
hopeless confusion, unable to distin-
guish friends from enemies and pow
erless to bring order out of chaos.
The attitude of the average soldier
is shown by the following letter writ
ten last month from the front to an
English Red Cross sister who nursed
him back to life after he had been
severely wounded and gassed and en-.
abled him to return to the trenches:
"In the trenches everything is
quiet. | go out scouting every day
looking for Germans, who have re-
treated from our trenches for about
Is miles. Here with us the light has
gone out of everything We are hun.
CRY, dressed in rags and bare-footed
the food is very bad, we have very
little bread, the only meat we get is
horse flesh and that is not fresh. We
have got horse of our own, but have
nothing to feed it with, so are think
ing OF eating it ourselves. There is
no help for us anywhere. 1t is our
fate to be thrown aside and forgotten
by the world and to die of cold and
hunger
Dear little sister, while | write
wonder whether you will read my let
ter. for | am a soldier, and now ey
cry soldier is considered a traitor
and is blamed for all that has hap
pened. But, dear little sister, iusr
think, wherein is the soldier IL
blame? He is the same soldier he
was in 1914. In most cases he ha,
been wounded several times. ha,
been poisoned by gas, has suffered
and is still suffering all the horrors O
war and yet-he is to blame for ey
erythlng. And why? Because on
whole government are traitors.
Formerly, the Russian soldier wa,
feared by the whole world, hut nov
that ne has been betrayed, no on,
even remembers him. Formerly. ey
cry commander tried to cause a.
many losses to the enemy as possible
and to save his own men, but now
they try to lose as many of their ow,
men as possible without harming tn,
enemy.
Take Riga, for example. Ever,
soldier was willing to give his lif
Tor it and many tears have been she,
Dy us over 1t. But it was surrend
ered without a fight and again tn,
soldier was blamed. 1t was no
known that the order for the retrea
had been given and was enforced h,
the threat of capital punishment i,
the case of disobedience. The arti,
lery had been removed from the dis
trict where the Germans brok,
through the line and the regiment
which had been stationed there con
sisted of old men and boys, who ha,
had no experience.
Formerly this district had bee,
guarded by the very best regiment
and great quantity of artillery ha
been placed there, but just before tn
German attack the artillery had bee,
removed and only one regiment lef
on guard, which was simply SVEN
away Two regiments were sent +
reinforce 1t, but were headed off 1,
another direction, so that the distric
was left unguarded and the 90,
mans walked quietly into Riga TIL
soldiers who were caught in Rio
were cut off and had to make a wa
through the enemy troops with tbei
bayonets in order to escape from di.
honorable capture.
"As to the rumors that the soldier
run away from the trenches an
loot-nowadays all the scoundrels nj
on soldiers uniforms and disgrac
them. And as to the soldiers no
wanting to fight any more-remen
Der, we have been in the trenches 70
more than three years, and the know
edge that we are being BETRAYED .,
every hand and the fact that we bav
lost faith in the war finishing wit
victory to us makes it impossible 70
NEG