ape the enemy's clutches. At
Vilna he showed his technique by again eluding the enemy.

"General Kaledin, the commander of the army on the Kovel front, is
relatively a new figure in important operations. At the beginning of
the war, as commander of a cavalry division, his universal competence
in all operations committed to his care brought him rapid promotion,
until now he is the head of this huge army. Meeting him frequently as
a guest, I have come to feel great confidence in this resolute, quiet
man, who is surrounded by a sober, serious staff, each officer picked
for his past performance.

"I note an infinite improvement since last year in the army. In the
first place I see no troops without rifles, and there is no shortage
of ammunition apparent. Then there is an extraordinary improvement in
the organization of the transport. In spite of the large volume of
troops on this front they are moving with less confusion than the
transport of single corps entailed two years ago. The compact
organization of munition columns and the absence of wasted time have
speeded up communications fully fifty per cent., enabling three units
to be moved as easily as two last year.

"The transport has been further improved by the addition of motor
vehicles. The staff organization is incomparably better than at the
beginning of the war, and I have not seen a single staff on this front
which is not entirely competent. The system of transporting the
wounded has been well organized, and vast numbers are being cleared
from the front stations without confusion or congestion.

"In comparison I can recall the early Galician days when unimagined
numbers of wounded, both our own and Austrian, flooded Lemberg in a
few days, and there were countless casualties. In spite of the numbers
of wounded here I have not seen any congestion, and I find all the
clearing stations cleared within a few hours after every fight, the
wounded passing to base hospitals and being evacuated into the
interior of Russia with great promptness.

"Owing to the few good roads and the distance from the railway of much
of the fighting, in many places the wounded have been obliged to make
trips of two or three days in peasants' carts before reaching the
railways.

"Finally, the morale of the army has reached an unexampled pitch. In
the hospitals which I inspected with the general many of the wounded,
even those near death, called for news of the front, asking if the
trench