RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3933, 15 June 1877, Page 3

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

The cable telegram of the 11th, to the effect that the Russian right wing is falling back on "Pennek," refers obviously to the operations in Armenia. Panak, no doubt, is the place intended. It lies between Kars and Olti. By the telegrams of the 13th we learn that Olti has been abandoned and has been retaken by the Turks. This, however, it is to be observed, rests on the faith of the Turkish despatches, and their news in regard to Ar 'dahan turned out misleading. Granting its correctness, moreover, it may mean very little. The Russians may have had no other object in their late advance beyond Kars except to scour the country and seize whatever stores or ammunition were to be found at Olti and other towns in the neighborhood. This being accomplished, it may be that there is no longer any object in holding these places, and the troops are accordingly being concentrated round Kars. The retreat, so far, is towards that fortress, not away from it. We observe that the Melbourne Argus is of opinion that the Russian operations on the Danube are chiefly, if not solely, for thellpurpose of dividing the Turkish army, and that the real theatre of war is to be Armenia. It may be taken for granted, it thinks, that if the Czar contemplated the acquisition of territory in European Turkey, so as to give liim the control of the Danube, neither Austria nor Germany could regard such a step with feelings other than those of alarm and hostility. Indeed, Russia would not be allowed to annex either Roumania or Bulgaria. In Asia, on the other hand, it thinks, that neither Germany nor Austria have any interests, and that neither of them would exert itself to check Russian aggression in that quarter. ' 'The Czar," it remarks, ' ' should become master of the whole of Asia Minor, and sbould shift the boundaries of his Empire from Poti to Scutari, so as to give him the command of the whole of the southern shores of the Black Sea, no interests of the other two Emperors would be jeopardised." This, however, is surely going a good deal too far. The possession of Scutari would give him the command of the Bosphorus, and thus enable him, at pleasure, to intercept the traffic between the Danube and the Mediterranean. Still it is a long way from Kars to Scutari, and it may readily be admitted that Germany and Austria 'have no interest in checking Russian progress in Armenia at all, comparable to that which England has. Lord Hartington, at the close of his speech on the address in February last, when discussing the probabilities of war, is reported to have said : — " Perhaps we are trusting too much to the attitude of Germany and Austria. Perhaps wo arc supposing that German and Austrian interests will put the statesmen of those countries on the alez-t, and that Russia, knowing she lias no material advantages to gain from war, will shrink from it.° But it may be that neither Germany nor Austria has any interest in Asia, and that the Asiatic provinces of Turkey are also open to attack. England has great interest in these Asiatic provinces. They some day may become the most direct route to India." We are only now beginning to see how sagacious was the forecast.