It is stimulating to see the Russian soldier in his habits as he lives and fights.  I have seen many thousands of them camped in the rain, swamped in bogs, or marching indefatigably over the roads which are long quagmires of mud, always with an air of stolid contentment and the look of being bent on business.  They include Baltic Province men speaking German.  Jews from Riga and Libau are brigaded with huge Siberians, whose marching must constitute a world record.  The Cossacks are past counting, and with them are long-coated, tight-belted Circassians and Kalmucks, all representing a mixture of races and languages like that of the British Empire itself.

Actually the whole line is a battle front from north of Wirballen to well into Poland, and no day passes without contact with the Germans.  This is an army in which every man has fought.  Most of them have been in hand-to-hand conflict with the Germans.  They have approached the front through a country which the enemy has devastated.  There is no village which does not bear the mark of wanton destruction.  I have seen these things for myself.  Houses have been burned, others pillaged and the contents dragged into the streets and there smashed.  Churches have been invariably gutted and defiled.

It is impossible not to admire these endless battalions of Siberians.  They are common objects of this countryside.  I came past Suwalki as they were moving up, column after column, in gray overcoats aswing in the rhythm of their stride, like the kilts of Highlanders.  It was they who bore the brunt of the fighting, unsupported by artillery, in forests of Augustowo, and, with the Baltic regiments, pushed on and took Lyck.  These are the men who marched forty miles, starting at midnight, then went into action between Gor and Raigrod and delivered a bayonet charge which their officers still boast about today.

I may not indicate the geography of the front on which the Russians and Germans are now facing each other, but the German general plan is to protect the railway and all approaches to a vital junction such as Goldapp and Insterburg.  Between them and the frontier lies a country of singular difficulty for the troops.  It is easy of defense, with small broken hills, innumerable lakes and roads winding in watered valleys among woods.  The Germans have gone to earth in their usual lavish fashion, digging themselves in with a thoroughness worthy of permanent fortifications.  Their trenches are five feet deep, with earthworks in front zig-zagging as a precaution against enfilading.  Some of them are very cleverly hidden with growing bushes.  All peasants remaining at the country-side in Prussia are compelled to work digging trenches.  The emplacements [Transcriber:  original ‘implacements’] for guns of large calibre have concrete foundations.

The Germans had fortified Suwalki, employing forced labor.  They had connected up the trench system with telephone installation and appointed a Military Governor and other functionaries.  Many German officers were joined there by their wives and families, who when they retired took with them souvenirs consisting of nearly every portable object of value in the town, besides much furniture and clothing.