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Show PO LE ARMY IS QUEER AFFAIR Loosely Formed Machine Is Saved From Defeat By French Strategy T' iSKN. Poland. Sept. i7. i Correspondence Cor-respondence of the Associated Press i An official of Uu French military mission in Poland has told the Associated Asso-ciated RresS correspondent that th't Polish arinv would have been conQUer-ed conQUer-ed bj the Bolshevik armies of Russia u the French had not supported the Poles rhis notwithstanding ihe fact that the Poles beat back the Russian drive on Warsaw The French official based his statement state-ment upon his belief that the Russian Rus-sian arinv was superior to the Polish arms as an effective fighting machine with the exception of the German-trained German-trained troops of Posen, The Frenchman French-man said he believed the Russian organization or-ganization has been, nnd still is, underestimated under-estimated ami because of this tendency to belittle lb Russian armies the menace to Poland's existence, if not to ill western Kurope, renin ins Imminent and real QFFH BItS W ERE F1ER4 E. The official said some Russian units were poorly equipped but It was not true the army WBS "a t-urefoot rabble." rab-ble." He was convinced the majority of the Russian divisions were "well organized units of good lighting men. much better officered than the Poles." The Poles had 31 ".,000- officers but only 5000 of them ever went to the front although they were sorely needed there, he said. There was evidence that certain Polish companies had fought without officers, he asserted, and that during the retreat these were without commanders An American artillery officer who had spent a year In Ruasp and had he?n under fire at the relish front told the i orrespondent he had seen the Poles "plant their artillery In the most ridiculous places, on the exposed sid'-s of hills and ilghl in th? open, when they could have concealed u and made it effective " OMR BATTLES. A neutral aviator who had flown over the front several times when battles were said to be in progress said what he saw of the fight mg aOS two armies keeping about three hours apart, the Poles retreating when the Russians advanced, and the Russians running When the Poles turned arid B i advanced." He said this schedult Bfliia sometimes got disarranged and there BK'I'"' was a collision between opposing de- Lwas' 3 i a hment - bul he had wltnt , . ,i nj of thesi clashes jj A number of Polish officers with ilBfaal whom the correspond nt i.iii-.eii said BI. i they were forced lo atlnilt the French iwa?Sal saved the du- but the weakness oj , KB their officers war. explained b. the" kVeweuf fact that In former years the Roles had awaVS m not been permitted to hold commls- Bfcv'M sions In th.- army, cither in Russian, LvaBfJB 0erman or Austrian Poland, and that VkKSBB the time had been loo short to develop mmVx9 i staff of highly trained officers. Lv |