Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-02-05
SIBERIALANDOF
OBSTACLES FOR
FIGHTING FORCE


Correspondence of the Associated
Press. People have talked lightly of
sending an army of half million men
or more to western Siberia to battle
with Bolshevism or for any other rea-
son connected with this stupendous
Russian problem. The Japanese
learned by bitter experience in the war
with Russia of the difficulties of ST.
berian campaign and would ponder
long before dispatching mighty army
to the far Ural mountains. The cor
respondent of the Associated Press, as
a passenger on a special British mill
tary train bound for Omsk, the seat of
the All-Russian government, is having
a close opportunity to study the diff
culties of transporting great army.
We have on board company Of
splendid British troops recently arriv-
ed from India-men of the famous
Hampshire regiment-the territorials
or militia of England who offered to
go to India to replace the regulars and
who served there for two years. Now
the fortunes of war find them riding
across the barren lands of Manchuria
ON their way 70 the heart Of the Sibe-
rian steppes, where the temperature
is forty degrees below zero. Anxious
as they are to return to their homes
in England they fulfill this new task
gladly and light-heartedly. They are
travelling in plain, rude box cars,
grouped about stoves with all the dis
comforts that journey of two or three
weeks, and perhaps more, involves.
For the officers commanding the
contingent, there is third class Rus
sian sleeping car with bare wooden
shelves to hold their sleeping bags and
blankets. In another British military
train which precedes us there is no
sleeping car and the officers are
camping with their men in the box
cars. We are fortunate in one re-
spect. Lack of Russian equipment and
facilities for cooking oblige the Off
GERS to eat the same rations as the
men which, if plain, is wholesome and
nOurishing
Lack of railroad cars is the most
striking feature of life in Siberia to-
day. There is deplorable disorganiZa-
ton. There is urgent need of CEN
trail management and people who have
the welfare of Siberia at heart ear
nestly hope that John F. Stevens, the
American railroad expert, who is now
here, will be given chance to bring
order from chaos.
1t was picturesque spectacle as the
train was stopped at stations on the
way from Vladivostock to Hardin.
AnAA Iluooldu OuIlIe66 duE hOTGdIlS III
bulky, tattered, filthy garments
swarmed around the traini offering
dOubtful-looking eatables for sale
Hungry, long-haired dogs, wolfish in
appearance, prowled about the cars,
swapping and growing, gulping down
anything that will stay death. In a
band in a lonely area they would be
formidable to any man The weather
was keen and cold, the wind biting.
Long delays occurred at almost every
station. Many freight cars were seen
but few in movement Disorganization
reigned as master.
The two lessons taught early in the
journey were, first, the great material
obstacles to be encountered in sending
a big army into Siberia and the i'm
perative need of central management
of the Siberian railroads. The COM
fort and perhaps the lives of the peo-
pie of Russia depend upon a prompt
central control of the railroads.