OCR Text |
Show THE JUNCTION AT KUT. J Spectacular, but of little military importance, im-portance, is the junction effected by a j Russian cavalry regiment with the English Eng-lish forces near Kut-el-Amara after a i wild and adventurous ride. Apparently :"the troopers did not pass through much i of the enemy country. They probably worked their way through the province of Luristan in Persia until they were as far south as the British forces and then passed westward through the i mountain canyons and dashed across the 1 plain to the Tigris, on both sides of which the British are operating. I Had the Russian cavalrymen passed through the mountains farther to the north they would have been compelled to ride southward in the Tigris valley. In that, event, it is to be assumed, they woiijd have met enemy detachments and engaged in battles, but the report of the junction with the English mentions no fighting. It appears that General Gorringe has made a slight advance toward Kut, the Turks having evacuated some of their positions, although still holding their chief positions at Sannayyat, on the left bank of the Tigris. The retirement of the Turks for a short distance may be the prelude to -the general retirement retire-ment from all Mesopotamia, which will be forced if the Russians advance to Bagdad. Already the Russians are so near llagdad that the Turkish positions , at Kut, more than 100 miles south of Bagdad, are too nuieh exposed to isolation iso-lation in case of a single Tu rU ish de-feat de-feat along the Persian border. The unimportance of the junction between Russians and English is based on the roujeeture that the .English are not short of men. They have; huu-d huu-d reds of t h on sands in Egypt ami at the Mediterranean .bases. It should not be d i iVicult t o t ra n sport to t lie region of Kut as many men as are needed. The transportation of artillery, horses and ot her hen vy freight is a different matter. This would lie a baffling task in the shallow readier, of the Tigris. 1 1: we have guessed the situation approximately, ap-proximately, it would seem that the English are not especially helped by the arrival of the Russians, for the latter must, bo fed and otherwise supplied from t he English stores. The English would find it jut as easy to supply the' r own men as to su pply the Russians. Rus-sians. On the other hand, the Russians bring t heir horses with t hern and will be aide to do valuable scouting. It is not unlikely that the English are short of cavalry and cannot obtain the in formation for-mation they need or make the raids on enemy communications that appear to be possible. The romantic feature of a junction of English and Russian troops iu Mesopotamia Meso-potamia fifty years ago would have been its .unexpectedness. Today such a junction can be arranged by cable. Petrograd cables to London that a c a va 1 ry regiment at K e r ma n sh a h in Persia is prepared to proceed to the English camp on the Tigris if it can be of any service. London cables bads that the troopers will be welcome and another cable is sent to Egypt; and thence to the Persian gulf, where it is taken up by the field telegraph in Mesopotamia and forwarded to Gen- j eral Gorringe 's headquarters. For days; he has been c'xpecting the arrival of the Russians and when t Ttey .gallop across the plain into the English camp there is a wild welcome, but no surprise. - |