Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-04-21 | Page 6 | Russians in France

I RUSSIANS IN FRANCE. I i 'I he announcement that a strong force iof Russian soldiers has arrived in Kram-o i and "ill fignt side by sido with too ! 1'remdi on the western front will lie somewhat difconce rtir.g to the Berlin war oftiee The offensive against France was predicated upon certain conditions which will be considerably disarranged by the appearance of the o,ht's troops 1 in Franco. ! The military experts ut the Wilhclm- l.-tiasse who advised Kmperor William t r i sanction the offensive against Verdun Ver-dun must hae (old the emperor what was approximately true, that France, having lost 2,tiu0,000 iu killed, wounded and prisoners, did not have, sutlicient forces to hold the line she occupied on the western front and at the same time sustain the terrific shock she would receive re-ceive at Verdun. The argument was convincing and encouraging. The at- j tack ou Verdun was ordered, and then J j the surprises began. j First of all the French relinquished a parr, of their line to the British. The j precise length of front the French abau- j doned has not been announced, but it probable was long enough to release so era! hundred thousand soldiers for j reserves. It gave the French enough re- j serves in and around Verdun not only j to stand the initial shock of the Ger- man offensive, but to reply with often- j sives of their own at critical periods, j But the Freuch losses at Verdun have j been rapidly approaching 12o,000, and soon will have passed the ."0,0i0 mark. Her reserves will have been wiped out and she cannot look to the English for j further reinforcements, for the KugHsh j have their work cut out for them not ; only along the extended line in France j and Flanders, but in Mesopotamia, Egypt, East Africa and at Salon iki. j Morco er, they must keep a force at j home to guard against invasion. j Whence have these legions of the czar j come to the aid of heroic France? Are! they from Saloniki, where Russian sol- j diets arc known to have landed several j months ago, or are they a wholly new 1 force iu the western theater of war? The fact that they lauded at Marseilles indicates that they catne from the Russian Rus-sian empire by way of Vladivostok, the Pacific, the Indian ocean, the Red sea. the Suez canal and the Mediterranean, and not by the route which the ghostly legions of the czar were reported to , have taken iD the second month of the j war. when their arrival in England and I Belgium was rumored and their start- j ing point given as Archangel. That J first expedition was merely a dream, but ; the pieut expedition .appears to be. authentic. I It would not be difficult to transport IjO.OOU or 20'i,rnu soldiers from Vladivostok Vladi-vostok if they were not required to take artillery, nor--- or heavy equip- j ment. If they could he adequately sup- plied in France with their armament it ! would be a simple matter to crowd them j on transports and eud them through ! the safe waters of the Orient. France has the armament and laks the men. J while Russia has the men and lacks the j armament. j