The Olneyville Times

RUSSIANS FIGHT IN FRANCE.

Paris.—As an immediate result, it is believed, of the recent Allies' conference in Paris, a great flotilla of Russian transports arrived at Marseilles and began disembarking a strong force of Russian troops who are to fight beside the French on the western front.

The landing of the Russian troops, heralded by Gen. Joffre in an army order as "another striking proof of the devotion of Russia to the common cause," came as one of the surprises of the war. The plan had been known only to the heads of the Allied staffs and was devised, it is said, at the recent Paris conference.

There are several factors that indicate the transports came from Vladivostok. Archangel did not become ice free until very recently. Besides, the present railroad facilities from the interior to Archangel are extremely bad, the new railway being still uncompleted. The belief that the transports came through the Mediterranean is strengthened by England's recent closing of the Suez Canal to neutral shipping. The distance from Vladivostok to Marseilles is about 10,250 miles. Figuring on an average speed of twelve knots the trip must have taken the transports about 37 days. If the troops had started out from Archangel it is believed that they would have been landed at Havre or some other point on the northwestern coast of France.

Not many hours after the news had been flashed to various European capitals, excerpts from comments of the afternoon papers in Berlin and Vienna were received. All admit that Russian aid on the western front, while generally expected in the early part of the war, had been entirely unexpected at this time.