Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-03

gave an impressive account Of restric-
tons at home.
Gen. Guorko. Russian Army, came
yesterday to urge acceptance OF their
officers in our Army, but was told that
| 1t is impracticable.
"As Surest means Of having trained
troops in the Spring. have cabled re-
quest for Regular divisions"
In considering the composition Of our
expeditionary forces, 1t was a question
whether we ought to organize higher
units by using Regular regiments, with
q proportionate number of new officers,
or utilize the permanent commissioned
personnel of the line for equitable as
Signment to the citizen contingents and
leave our Regular organizations to be
completed from the relatively raw ma
terial at our disposal, and thus build
up all categories Of the Army stimuli
/ taneously.
A this moment training had begun
OF the first draft, certain assignments
| from the Regular units had already been
made, and a considerable proportion of
new personnel had been utilized to
| I'LL up the Regular units. 1t was my
| opinion, with which both Bliss and Har-
! bord agreed, that the quickest way to
provide sorely needed assistance to the
allies would be to hasten the training
OF our Regular divisions and send them
to France as soon as possible.
I recommended that Regular regi-
mentS at Honolulu and elsewhere be
relieved for this purpose by National
Guard regiments These Regular troops
would more nearly approximate the
standards of our allies at the start, and,
more important still, their use would
diminish the chances of reverses during
our first encounters with the enemy.
| The acting chief of staff at home, Mai.
Gen. John Biddle, agreed with my Sug-
gestion, but the widely separated ioca-
tons of these regiments made their re-
placement somewhat difficult and only
the Sd, 4th and 5th Divisions came in
time for service early in 1918, the 9Th
and 7th arriving to take part in the
Fall campaign.
Criticize Each Other.
Gen. >Petain came for dinner De-
cember 16, bringing reports from Italy
which were far from encouraging The
opinion was expressed in certain French
circles that they should take over the
Italian Army and reorganize 1t If there
was to be anything effective expected
on that front. Another suggestion was
! that a French chlef CT SLaH De APP
pointed for the Italians. and that the
| President of the United States as a
distinguished friend, should put the
proposition forward with the necessary
pressure to accomplish it. But, Of
course, no such change was necessary
or even remotely possible.
! Incidentally 1t was noticeable that
! the allies were quick to criticize each
ether and allege ineff1ciency. especially
in case of reverses. In due time, how
ever, the British and French divisions
were returned from Italy to their own
hard-pressed fronts, where they, too,
suffered disastrous defeats. The Ital-
ians might also have said many things
about the French and British de-
! ficiencies and they probably did so. Be
! fore the end of the war the records OF
/ the respective armies in the West as 70
reverses were just about a stand-oH
Tomorrow Pershing dissatisfied with
training at home; visits Belgian King
and Queen.
Copyright 1881 in all countries by the
/ North American Newspaper Alliance: World
4 rights reserved including the scandinavian
/ Reproduction in whole or in part prohln-
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