The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-07-21
TROTzKY'S ARMY
 IS BIG BLUFF
 EXPERTS ASSERT
Troops Pose on Polish Border As Diplomatic Trick, Is Claim.
By HARRY l.. ROGERS, International News Service.


 Red Army, the bugaboo of European statesmen. and one of the chief reasons advanced by France for blishment, is a colossal bluff, at least SO far as foreign conquest Is con. cerned, according to American mih- tary experts. thrusting communism down the 1 throats of the bourgeois nations of the world, the Soviet legions. according to American experts, have not even been able to preserve the ola Russian Empire from partial disintegration and have been really effective only in the well known role of awelng the Russian peasant
 Soviet leaders have proved them selves thoroughgotng adherents of the doctrine of fear, it is pointed out In advance of every overture by Moscow diplomats toward the so-caled cap italfstto chancedlories, there has been a warlfke demonstration, if not by the Red Army itself, then at least in the form of spasm of verbal pyro- technics by War Secretary Trotzky. Neverthless, it remains fact that only a small percentage of the Red | Army are actually communists. official l information here indicates. and the ! greater umber of those doing Squads | right" for War Lord Trotzky are there ! merely because better food is to be l obtained in the army than elsewhere. | Used For Diplomacy. | The present steady concentration of Soviet troops on the Polish and ! Rumanian frontiers is regarded here
 as another complication of the ten dency Of Soviet diplomacy to use the l Red Army as a trump card whenever diplomatic negotiations are in pro- gress.
 The movement of troops began shortly before the Genoa conference convened and has continued through out the negotiations at The Hague, | he 350,000 men are now concentrated on those frontiers.
 or these nearly one-half are on the Polish or so-called ''Western front, fwhile approximately 125,000 are on | the Rumanian border, and the re-
 matnder are concentrated in the Kar- the Red Armies. including 1z5,0Oo of the so-ca1led Cheka, or secret service troops, fs estimated at approximately 1, 500, ,0o0.
 the frontier has occasioned consider able alarm both in Poland and Rum a;nia. but those here most competent to speak say all tnformadon indicates originally undertakes for moral effect Iupon the Genoa Conference and con- ltinued to guarantee Soviet Russia more impressive role in the Hague
 Many Rifles Available
 The total combatant strength of
 
 neighborhood of s5o,ooo rifles of
 which approximately 21o,ooo are in cluded in the forces concentrated or
 the Polish and Rumanfa,n frontiers. $50 pieces Of artillery with these forces.
 The alarm naturally felt dn Poland , which was manifested in efforts of the Polish Government to ccnclude a , military alliance with Finland and other Baltic States-was increased by . warlike preparations on the part of lthe Soviet War Office. These specific preparations included:
 "1. Comprehensive improvements ) in railway facilities and highways leading to the Poish border. r ment of artillery not only on the 3 Polish frontier, but in the Moscow : area as well. including the organiza 8 tion of than fifty batta1ions of artil- = lery of various types and calibres.
 "3. The establishment of a,pproxi-
 mately 800 new held hospitals
 "4. Mobilization of many officers
 and surgeons who previously had beer 2 discharged from the army, as well as an organized and systematic effort
 to recall to the colors all officers with y experience in the old Czarfst armies g "5. Orders for . decrease in the = | time of preparation for action on tho '. Western front ranging from nine !. Another Bluff Seen l Experts on the ground who arc a studying. the situation with keenes
 interest are convinced that this move. - ment is. another bluff on the part o1 l the Soviet authorities. They point g out that the force on the frontier 5 would not be sufficient for an offen-
 sive campaign either in Poland o1
 Rumania, especially in view of the
 probable action of the great Powers !. of Europe. Such a force. they assert : would be of use only as a means o1 r holding the frontier pending a gen. s eral mobilization of the man-powel Q of Russia
 S The possibility of such a mobili1 - zatien on a large scale in tho opin.
 ion of experts, Is the fupdanental tes t of the military strength of the Mos n COW government. Leaving aside tn, h question of equipment, there can b,
 no doubt that If the Soviet authori f ties were able to call together tn, 8 nan-power of Russia and rnanipulat, e it in anything like a modern nflitar,