HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1929-02-07, Page 6Grand Duke Was Brilliant • Officer Romanoff Chief in World War Handicapped by Divided Authority and a Short- age of Supplies. BETRAYED BY CZAR By William L. IV1cPherson (In New York Herald -Tribune) The Grand Duke Nleholas of Russia is the third of the former Allied com- manders in chief to pass from the scene within the last twelve months— Field Marshal Haig died on January 29, 192S; Field Marshal Cadorua on December 22, 1928, and the Grand Duke on January 6, 1929. Like Cadorua, and unlike Haig, he failed to retain his high command until the end of the war. But he as- sumed it earlier than they did, being named commander-in-chief on August 2, 1914, while Cadorna's service in a similar post did not begin until Italy entered the war on May 23, 1915, and Haig's nomination as head of the British armies in France dated. from December 15, 1915. Cadorna was retired in November, 1917, following the tremendous Capor- etto disaster, for which he was held directly responsible. The Grand. Duke Nicholas suffered the cr,.shing defeat of Tannenberg ie. September, 1914. But it was not held up against him personally, because it happened through blunders on the part of sub- ordinates and l ecause its effects were quickly neutralized by the series of brilliant Russian victories in southern Poland and eastern Galicia. The Graud Duke conducted the Rus- sian retreat out of the Polish salient in the summer of 1915, but his mill- tee,- reputation was not materially af- fected thereby. He was displaced on September 6, 1915, through parliamen- tary interfeeence in St. Petersburg. Haig also won]a have been displaced in 1917 by Premier Lloyd George, if the latter had dared to take such a step in +lefiaa ae of army and civilian opinion. It is a curious anomaly that a feeble and shoat -lived parliamentary body, with an na,, e: tain status in an autoc- racy t;ke Russia's, could intervene more efttc.:i;e:y in military operations than c =aid its powerful and self-willed chief of the British parliamentary coaatie•n. Popular As Soldier The Grand Duke was Russia's most conspicuous and popular soldier. He was by his force of personality, high professional capacity and prestige as a member of the imperial family, the most available roan to direct Russia's military effort. Kuropatkin, compe- tent, but not brilliant. commander, bad failed in the Japanese war and had ceased to be available. The fighting on the eastern European front had developed no leader fitted to take Nicholas's place. And the Czar, though yielding to the Liberal politicians in the Dumo, who could not hope to influence the Grand Duke, and to the personal hostility of the Rasputin group, of which the 'Czarina was the all-powerful patron- ess, admitted the facts of the situation when he named himself as actual. commander -he -chef. He had no military competency and 'merely covered up a political maneu- ver of undertaking a responsibility, in the midst of the great war, which lie had refused to apume under far less arduous and dangerous conditions to - War dthe end of the 3apanese war, al- thouelt etrongi;^ urged to do so by his Nem" and crony of that period, Kaiser Wi.he:tn 11. Son of Ae rry Commander Nicholas was born and bred a sol- dier. He had pronounced military tastes and inclinations, and the spirit, manners and character of a military chieftain. His father, also a Grand. Duke Nicholas, had been commander in chief of the Russian armies in the Balka.na during the T.usso-Tinkish War of I77 -'T8. The son had won distinction at the , crossing of the in a bitter quarrel withHindenburg yDanube in 1878 and in the capture of and Ludendorff and would not listen Shiplta Pass. He had reorganized the Russian cavalry, while acting, as ,itr-, Spector general of cavalry from 1895 to 1905. He was made president in 1905 of the Council of National De- fense, created to strengthen and mod- ernize the Russian ;military establish- ment. One of the Seas Mysteries TREMENDOUS ROYAL STURGEON WHICH WAS CAPTURED INh'HE NORTH SEA Weighing 259lbs„ it proved quite a handful for half a dozen men and 'created quite' a sensation,whten tc i earrived d shered ata fisheries depot in London. Sturgeon are caught in fresh 'and 'Salt water and always cause ex comment. anee, dict much to improve conditions, yet fell far short of bringing the army up to the condition of equipment, training or munitions, reserves and facilities for manufacturing them re- quired for conduct of a war against a highly militarized nation like Ger- many. Handicap Recalled Nicholas also assumed leadership in 1914 under the additional handicap of no intimate kuowledge of the arrange- ments made for co-operation with the French General Staff. He was called upon to execute plans which were not his own. At the beginning of the war Russia stood on a very unequal footing with Germany—so unequal that the Getman General Staff left East Prussia inade- quately defended, while hurrying the invasion of Belgium and France. But German superiority in tactics, morale,, and especially in artillery and all the mechanical appliances of war, was quickly demonstrated, even in East Prussia, where Hindenburg and Lud- endorff so easily envelope daud crush- ed a Russian army marching incau- tiously into the trap of Tannenberg. Never after, except in rare instances (and then on the defensive), were the Russian.armies able to meet the Ger- mans on nearly equal terms. As Hin- some distance behind the Brest- the, Crimea and remained there until Litovsk line on which they had the end of the war. Reaching Con - originally 'mobilized.' on originally'mobilized.• stantinople early in 1919 he was trans - pox members of the imperial family, on a Russia lost 850,000 killed and 1,250,-, British tiarship. 000 prisoners in this campaign. The Considerate of Soldiers man -power losses could be grade up. Nicholas was a striking picture of Munitions were coming in front west- ern.Europe and the Russian armies a soldier. More than six feet three were to show themselves capable of inches in heigh with a handsome, another powerful offensive iu 1916 aristocratic face and an erect military Heavy Losses in Campaign 'ted to Italy, with several other Nicholas was not responsible for the figure' he looked the guardsman of tragic military breakdown of 1915, tr'adit'ion. His tastes were simple, hisal- whose consequences were not as seri- d• ous as they might have been. But the Czar displaced him on September 6, partly because of the activities of the Duma politicians and partly, no doubt, because of the Grand Duke's feud with Rasputin. The sinister adventurer who won the Czarina's confidence had asked permission to go to the front and "bless the armies." Nicholas had sent hint the contemptuous answer: "Come and I will hang you." • Ras putiu's power at court was farreach- Ing. He used it skilfully to accelerate the Grand Duke's downfall . Organized 1916 Offensive Lord liaidane On,Opportunities In a Volume of Essays 'Brit- ain's Grand Old Man Ans wens the Question of '; How Man Can Realize On Life's Oppor- `tunities MORAL POWER WINS "The short preface bears this year's date, and :it must have been under HINCH:i:IFFE'S 'PLANE? the shadow of death that Lord Part of . undercarriage washed Haldane selected the papers, only ashore at Donegal, Ireland, may be seven all told, which sum up his section of plane in which Capt. 7lirtc e philosophy of practical life... A refiec- liil'e unit B.isie i\Iackay 1w"ere lost•. tion of legitimate pride may perhaps be inferred. With one exception the more real May become the choice these essays date from before the of that high aim of titan, the dedicat- War. led life, We learn so to avoid the un; "But they look forward, as p11110- conscious devotion of our energies to solihfe studies must, and their prop- that for which we are not fit, and the hecy has been substantially fulfilled. peril 01 fettling unconsciously into in• 'Lord Haldane has, however, let his sincerity and unreality of lnu•pose, words stand as they were written and " lerie learn so to choose the wort+ has resisted `any temptation to add that is most congenial to us, because footnotes, and, indeed, they are not We find in .it, what makes .us most called. for. A. philosophy which; keenly conscious that we are bringing makes any pretence to be both pro-' Into actual existence the best that found and comprehensive •cannot be lies latent in tis. The wider outlook; destroyed by a war." 1 -the deeper sympathy, the keener in - Haldane. • "London Times •Literary Supple- sight, which this kind of culture ment," in its review of Selected Ad- gives, do not paralyse. They save dresses and Essays, by 'Viscount him who has won theca from num- Httldane. I beriess pitfalls. They may teach hixn * * * *• his own- limits, and the more he has "It is not brute force, but amoral learned his lesson the more he will most ascetic. He was absorbed in power that commands predominance realize these limits. profession and avoided social isstpa• in the world," said Viscount Haldaue, I "But they clo not dishearten trim, tion and politics. s in his Rectorial address at Edinburgh, for he has become familiar with the Though a grand seigneur, he was ex- which opens the volume he prepared truth that the very essence of con trexxxely simple and democratic in for press shortly before his death. He truth uess and of 111e. is to be aware manner, always at ease with the sol- goes on to say:— of limits and to strive to overcome Biers under him and considerate of "The only life that for us human' them. He knows that without limits their welfare. He became the choice beings can be perfect is the life that there can be no lite, and that to have of one branch of the exiled Russians is dedicated I mean by fire expres comprehended these limits is to have fo rine Czarship in case of restoration. But he did not take that candidacy over seriously. . His wife, the Grancl Duchess Anas- tasia, was a Montenegrin princess, whose first husband was. Prince George Romanow'slci, the Duke of Leuchteuberg. She and her, sister, also a grand duchess, were highly fn- the quality of his striving is great• the outset a great question. We have fiuential figures in St. Petersburg, and Lofty designs must close in like of to ascertain of what we are really was their hostility to Raspntin which, recta: 1 capable. For if we essay what it is in. part, occasioned. Nicholas's removal "The first. duty of life is to seek to not given to us to excel in, the quality as Russian commander-in-chief in 1 comprehend clearly what our strength of. our striving wit( be defioient. September, 1915. I will let us accomplislf and then to i "But, given the capacity to re, Transferred to the Caucasus, Nicho- las icho las put fresh life into the Asiatic cam- paign. Ile organized and directed the dashing winter and spring offensive of denburg once explained it, it was the 1916, which captured lerzerunt ou case of the morale and equipment of February 16, :l'rebizond on April 13 a more advanced military people tri- and cleared Armenia of the Turks ,umphing over the morale 'and equip- from the Black Sea south to Lake Van. ment of a less advanced one. In July the Russian front was pushed Checked Austrian Drive west from Erzerum 100 miles farther to Erzingan. From that time on there With Austria-Hungary the case was was little activity in either Armenia different. The Dual Monarchy had to or Kurdistan, all Russian efforts being. depend on armies of uneven quality. centred in the Russian efforts being Many racial groups were disaffected centred in the Brusiloff drives in tlto disposal would be difficult, unless and fought half-heartedly. To the Carpathian sector. among the strange traders of the great astonishment of the Austro -1 The Grand Duke was ordered home world there exists a receiver of stolen strength is thrown, in which we look Hungarian General Staff' the Russian . from the Caucasus in March, 1917. buses. The Paisley bus, in a par neither to the right nor to the left, forces easily stopped its offensive The Czar, then about to be dethroned, oxysm of outraged honesty, resented if to do so is to lose sight of duty— movement in August, 1915, into such a life is a dedicated life. The wanted to rename his commander -M. its appropriation so lemur itgg down a forms may be manifold. The lives of southern Poland and thea swept from !chief. Suck an order was issued, but lamp standard, clisoxga.uizfn� the local the east and southeast over' Eastern ;chief. seizing the control of the tram service, and bursting into flames. all great men have been dedicated; the —Evening Standard. singleness of purpose has dominated Galicia and the Bukovina. of erntueut, rescinded it. No, revoluincur throughout. Except in East Prussia, the Grand tionamy faction wanted to have a mem-thelife, f Duke Nicholas had ::.rugs pretty mucic' her of the imperial family at the head You can't travel far ou a lame ex - his own way for the first nine months; of the armies, i�Tichola.s returned to cuss. of the war. He had frustrated two sion a 'dedicated life' one that is with transcended them. As for what lies all its strength concentrated on a high; beyond him he has realized that it is purpose. Such a life may not seem but as the height in front, which is to him who looks on only from out gained only to disclose another height side to comprise every good. The beyond. . purpose, though high, may be re-. "I know no career more noble than stricted. The end may never be at -that of a life so consecrated. We tained. Yet the man is great,- for have each of us to ask ourselves at , do it with all our might. This may,cognize and seek after what is really There was a touch of Mark Twain's not, regarded from outside, appear to I the highest in a particular depart, story of the Stolen White Elephant in ; the . spectator to be the greatest of ment of lite, then it is not' the tit- he escapade of some Paisley youths !possible careers, but the ideal career' tainment of some external goal—itself who stole a motor bus—scarcely a is the one in which we can be great-� of limited and transe]ent impose of petty larceny. Such a theft is est according to the limits sof our' ranee —but in earnestness and con- e, easy to hide—one cannot conceal capacity. centration of effort to accomplish a motor bus about one's person—and Such a Life is Dedicated what all recognize to be a noble par "A life into which our whole ; pose, that the measure of success lies. So it was with Browning's Gram marten. Men laughed at him while he 'lived. That did not matter.—lir the end they 'bowed their heads be- fore him, and when his life was finished laid trim to rest in the highest place the? knew. For they .saw the "Thus it was with r e o a greatness of spirit of the man who Socrates, a Spinoza, or Newton; chose wbat he could best accomplish, limited himself to that, and strove to thus with the -livor of men of action, German drives from the west toward ' Warsaw, overran Middle Galicia and pushed to within eight miles of 1 Cracow and forced tate bulk of the 1 Austro-Ilungarian forces beyond the Carpathian ranges. IIe successfully occupied and defended the Polish, salient. Russia had done mucic better than the Western Allies, She had seized a large area of enemy territory, while Germany had overrun Belgium! and iutrenched on the soil of France. , Supplies Ran Low But Russian supplier were running low. General Gourko wrote in his "War and Revolution in Russia" that "for months in 1915 batteries in action daily did not receive more than four shells per day." An army corps would. receive 1,000 shells atone delivery and not know when the next's-•installment would arrive. In the spring of 1915 Falkenitayn decided to carry the war into Poland and to liberate the occupied Austrian territory, Ile was at the time engaged. to Ludendorff's suggestion of an en- velopment operation out of East Prussia. That was a piece of luck for Nicho- las. With overwhelming superiority in artillery and machine guns, k ailten- hayn elected to make a frontal attack, irresistible ander the circumstances In 1908, however, this body was dis- and sure to clear Poland and the solved, for political reasons, anti its Galicias, but also allowing as compe- • work was confided 'to the War Minis- tent a tactician as the Grand Duke t0 try, which, with Kuropatkin's assist- withdraw the mucases of his armies ,$'MATTER POP— Flirting With Jungle 'King• --� such as Caesar and Cromwell and perfect his work with all his might," There must be many who will, Napoleon, We may well see their want this book, by a man who, hi was theirs was the sphere of what spite of misrepresentation and abuse ens" is human, the finite. _But they con - H<,,,,.. centrated on the accomplishment of tracing his life, Stands out as one at a clearly conceived purpose, and the great thinkers o his time. worked with, their whole strength, and the greatest of them threw that strength into the striving after what was noblest. They hay have perish- ed before their end appeared accom- plished in time, and." yet they have succeeded. The duality of their work lay in the very striving itself. "The end, a profound modern think- er tells us in a great passage, does not wait to be accomplished; it is alwa=ys accomplishing itself, 'In our finite human life- we never realize or see that the end has in truth been reached. The completion of the in- finite purpose is thus only the pro- cess of removing the iliustion that it• is not accomplished. The good, the absolutely good, is eternally working itself out in the world, and the results is that it is already there in its per- fection, and does not need' to waft for as. es. Veen:see, v'..A... is TOGARE, THE LION TAMER, WEARING LIVING p FU R "No Career More Noble" ' "The noblest of souls can find full Satisfaction for his best aspirations in the sustained effort to do his dttty in the work that lies at hand to the utmost that is in him. , , , "The wider our outlook, the more eve liave assimilated the spirit of the Wonderful power over the king of beasts is possessed by Togare,,who is teachers ot, other dations, and other Paying his first visit to England, thrilling all beholders at 111E Olympic cirdus• ages than our own, the more will the Pa. g g in London, possibilities of action open to us, and CATERPILLARS HELPED.=1 W'I n TH E GREAT ' -" WAR? YOU'RE CRAZY— WHAT /1\,,. DID THEY , 7) HAVE TO 001 WITH IT?r, PLENTY- DI D'CIT'(OU EVER HEAR OF. A CATERPILLAR TRACTOR EH? Have you ever noticed that Mr. Busy Business Man is never too rush- ed to watch the electric train wind its tortuous ' ay around the toy shop windows? • There has beg,- a notable quicken- ing of the public consciences to de^ nounee war' as a crime.—Secretary Kellogg. And She's Betting On a Sure Thing. , co ♦ 1-I