A Russian officer high in command under General Kuro. patkin
reveals in a letter to a brother-officer, written at New- chwang, at least one of the causes of Russian failure in the Far East. The officers, he says, are so divided by their jealousies and the pursuit of private interests 'that Japan, the common enemy, is forgotten." "Every one, from the Viceroy and General Kuropatkin down to insignificant subalterns, quarrels and is unwilling to obey orders." The members of the Secret Service spy upon each other; and though the men are full of loyalty, they go like sheep to the shambles. It is said in other accounts that General Kurt>. patkin has sent to St. Petersburg strong complaints of the training of the officers, and even the foreign correspondents who report well of them describe them rather as schoolboys than as thinking men. Of their courage there can be no doubt, for they die in heaps; but there is evidently something wrong with the system which produces them, probably the eternal struggle for the favour of superiors, which is the only road to advancement, probably also a vanity leading to utter careless- ness. The belief in Russia as "the Colossus" which must win by its mere magnitude has entered into their very souls, and in any Russian account of a defeat you may trace an accent of surprise, amounting sometimes to incredulity. Defeat the troops of the Czar,—that is impossible !
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