RUSSIA IN THE EAST.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3562, 8 December 1882, Page 4

RUSSIA IN THE EAST.

Now that the Egyptian troubles are on the way to a settlement, the attention of the ■world will naturally be directed to the aggressions of Russia in Asia. A late exchange states the situation as follows: — 'Russia is concentrating a formidable army on the Caucasus. On its present peace-foot-ing the army of the Caucasus consists of 124,327 troops, composed of 83,901 infantry, 21,255 cavalry, 14,885 artillery, and 4286 engineers. The number of officers attached is 2676 to the infantry, 949 to the cavalry, 512 to the artillery, and 164 to the engineers. The greater part of this force is kept on hand in the Tiflis district, whence it can be directed with ease by railways either upon the Caspian or on the Black jSea, or forwards in the direction of Kars and Erzerotim. The position it occupies is thus extremely strong from a strategical point of view, and is enormously more advantageous than that which it held on the outbreak of the war of 1877-78. When hostilities commenced then the railway from the Caspian to Tiflis was not commenced, the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus was dominated by Batonm, and Alexandropoli was confronted by the still stronger fortress of Kars. At the cost of over a million sterling Russia has now completed the railway communication between .Baku and Poti, thus rendering it possible to move from the central point, Tiflis, the army toward the Caspian or Black Sea; Kars has been conquered and converted into a first-class Russian fortress ; and Batoum has not only been improved as a harbor, but a railway has been constructed on the one hand toward the Tiflis-Poti line, and on the othei-, a macadamized road has been laid down as far as Kars. Strengthened externally, the Caucasus has been rendered more powerful internally by the massacre, or deportation, of all the disaffected classes who took part in the tribal insurrection in 1877. This measure of repression was applied with such thoroughness, not only to the tribes of the Caucasus, but also to the Mussulman population of the conquered Turkish territory (a quarter of a million of which migrated in consequence to Turkey), that the element, of disorder has been reduced to a minimum, and could hardly be quickened again into a blaze. Of the 125,000 troops composing the army of the Caucasus, most are Europeans, and in the event of a war the force would be raised at onco 300,000' men.