RUSSIANS ATTACKING SUBURBS OF TREBIZOND

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 66, 17 March 1916, Page 5

RUSSIANS ATTACKING SUBURBS OF TREBIZOND

. REINFORCEMENTS LANDING EAST OF THE TOWN.

"i (Received 10.15 a-m.y

ROME, March 16. Reports from Petrograd state that the Russians are attacking the environs of Trebizond from the east and south, and from the sea. Reinforcements continue to land east of the town.

The attack on Trebizond is the natural corollary of the Grand Duke* success at Erzeroum and Bitlis. but the reduction of "the fortress may prove a more difficult problem than was the capture of cither of those two gateways to Asia Minor. It was reported three weeks ago that the Russians had cut off Trebizond's supplies, and were preparing to land an army to attack the port. By using transports the Grand Duke has avoided a march oi 50 to 60 miles over roadless mountainous country. The capture of the town will be of great assistance to the Russians in consolidating their hold on Armenia, while it will ateo greatly increase the moral effect of the progress already made. Trebizond is situated near the south-cast corner of the Black Sea. The name is a variant of Trapezius, which suggests the Greek origin of the port. From the day of its foundation as a Greek colony it has been a place of considerable commercial importance, and it was for 200 years the capital of an empire which was established by Alexius Comnenus after the dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire about the time of the Fourth Crusade, 1204. The Empire of the Grand Comnenus continued to exist till 1461, when the city was taken by Mohammed 11. Its long existence as an almost unknown centre of a thriving empire was due to its isolation. The city and its territory lie between a precipitous mountain range, 7,000 ft high, and the Black Sea. There is only one passable road to the port, and that is the caravan route which runs through Erzeroum to Persia. The harbour, which is open to the north-cast gales, is at times very unsafe, and has become very Inuch silted up. but although the Russian railway from the Caspian to Batum has attracted much of its trade with Persia. Trebizond is still the chief port of Armema, and its trade is considerable. The present vilayet of Trebizond is divided into four sanjaks, the eastern one being very deeply indented and mountainous. That supplies the'reason why the Russians are "being shipped to a point 70 miles east of the town: The mineral wealth of tbe vilayet is great and its soil extremely fertile. In 1900 the exports of the province amounted to nearly 1$ millions, and it 3 imports to over lj millions. Before the war British, French, and Russian consuls resided there. The population is close on 40,000, a little less than half of whom are Christians, chiefly Greeks, the remainder being Armenians. It was near Trebizond that Xenaphon and his 10,000 Greeks in their great retreat reached the sea.