Evening star., 1941-09-28
Officials Gloom Over Russia
Not Shared by Military Men
Responsible Strategists Say That Long as Allies
Hold Oil of the Caucasus, Germanys
Chances Decline
Bv Constantine BrOwn.

/ sacks around him HIS armies have t-cn
battered But in the Caucasus-Whicn
is the most important territory for the
| Germans because it ohstructs the way
to the rich oil fields of AzerbaldJan,
/ Persia and Irao he has an army CT
about 1000 men who nave not fired
shot against the enemy yet.
Beyond Brides or Promises.
/ He was blamed for not moving thee
! troops to the Dnieper battle front and
/ thus bo!Stcring up his forces during the
German onslaught of &st week.
The old Cossack sergeant apparently
knew what he was doing, for when the
Germans begin their march toward the
Caucasian border they will be met by
fresh Soviet army, well-trained and
familiar with the mountain passes which
separate the rest of Russia from the
Caucasus AS far as il is possible to
Judge from here. no bribe or promise
could induce Budyenny t. lay down his
arms.
Marshal TlmoShenkU, who is stub
bornly defending Moscow may find HIM.
self in predicament after the fall of
Leningrad and Odessa and may be COM
PEELED to abandon the defense of the
capital in order to save men and ma
terial The former Bessarabian farm
hand owes his position to Stain and his
LOYALTY TO the dictator is considered un
questionable.
The same confidence does not prevail
in usually well-informed quarters with
regard to Marshal Voroshilof. He is not
soldier, but a politician considered by
many as a rival to Stain. For years he
has been head of the army as commlssar
for war. He is sophisticated and likes
an agreeable life. The story is told that
some time before his removal from the
commissariat the Gestapo assigned
very good looking ballet dancer TO gain
his confidence She Gid. One afternoon
while she was waiting for him at his
home she saw the chance and went
through his papers. He caught her in
the act of pilfering his confidential docu-
ments. Voroshiloff is a gentleman. He
did not blame the dancer, but her en-
ployers He got into mis- car and went
to call on the chief of the GeStapo. The
two men were together a short time
during which terrific noises were heard
from adjacent rooms. Finally Voroshll-
off emerged wiping his hands with dis
guSted air The chief of the Gestapo
spent several days in the hospital with
swollen eyes and face lacerations which
he received in a fall" as the official
report put it.
voro-hiloff "Approachable," Perhaps.
There has never been much love lost
between Stain and his principal col
laborator, but Voroshiloff had been at
the head of the defense forces too long
to enable the hermit in the Kremlin to
pure him as he had purged other pot
tential rivals The Finnish campaign
gave Stain his chance VoroShilof was
blamed for some of the mistakes of that
campaign and was removed as commissar
of national defense. But he was ap-
pointed commander of the northern dis
trict. which includes Leningrad and the
important KronStad naval base.
Voroshiloff might be the man who
would be willing to accept power from
the hands of the Germans if he really
believed it would be to the advantage Of
Russia-and, incidentally, to VoroShiloff
himself. When the question of whether
Russia might make peace or not is
weighed in responsible Washington
quarters, nobody talks about a general
peace such as might have been possible
say two months ago-a peace between
Hitler, the dictator of the Reich, and
Stain, the dictator of all the RuSSias.
This can no longer happen, since Hitler
is hopping mad at his associate of two
years ago and no reconciliation is con-
sidered possible. But in some diplomatic
quarters the possibility is not excluded
that Hitler may make a tempting offer
to Marshal VoroShiloff and try to estab-
lish him as German puppet in the
north of Russia with Leningrad as the
capital, after the eastern front has been
stabilized.
But even if this somewhat long range
prophecy were to be realized, military
experts in Washington are not unduly
alarmed. AS long as the oil fields of the
Middle East can be kept out of the hands
of the Germans there is no reason, say
these observers, why we should look
pessimistically to the future.