Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1577.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3935, 18 June 1877, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1577.

The telegraphic news by San Francisco in regard to the operations at the seat of war is very full and explicit, almost too much so, perhaps, for ordinary readers not acquainted with the localities alluded to. One thing seems manifest, that Turkish Armenia is tho true theatre of operations. The Russians appear to have done very little on the Danube at any point. In Asia, on the other hand, their operations have been carried on with great vigor, but at the same time, under great and, it may be, daily increasing difficulties. The blockade of the Black Sea ports will render the transmission of supplies by way of Poti impossible, and such supplies as could be sent from the Caspian along the high road to Tirlis, a distance of some two hundred and fifty miles, are likely to be cut oft' by the Circassians, aided ultimately by the whole Mahometan population of the Transcaucasus province. In these circumstances the position of the Russian army, in a barren and hostile country, where, indeed, no supplies could be calculated on but such as were sent from Europe, must lie an exceedingly perilous one. It was possible for the Russians to starve the garrison of Kars in to surrender in 185"), as then they had the command of the Euxine. They have lost it now, and a protracted siege, in these altered circumstances, might end as likely as not in the starvation of the besiegers. If they find that Kars is not to be taken by assault they may feel that they have now no alternative but to retreat, and if they are driven to retreat tho world will perceive, not without satisfaction, that the tide of Muscovite extension in Asia has passed its flood and is now beginning to recede. Among the items of political news, the refusal of France to send an ambassado)r to Constantinople is, perhaps, the most significant. It looks as if the Due Decazes, programme of absolute neutrality "were undergoing revision, and as if France sees the day approaching when Russia will be driven into collision with her deadly enemy, Germany. She will also find it impossible to witness without bitterness of spirit the frustration of all her dreams of dominion in the East by the imminent occupation of Egypt by a yet mightier Teutonic Power than Germany. This project is, indeed, as yet onty in the stage of rumor, but it is far from being a rumor of an improbable description. The Turkish tribute is about £700,000, and England would probably not haggle about the sum fixed for its capitalization. If £20,000,000 were paid in the shape of a subsidy to Britain's " advanced guard in the East " as a member of the House of Commons recently styled the Ottoman Empire amid enthusiastic applause, the British public, which is manifestly assuming every day a more "warlike tone, would not grudge it, even though no consideration were received in its jjlace. When the consideration is Egypt, a territory the possession of which is of vital importance to the integrity of the Empire, we may be sure that the monetary question will not stand in the way. Russia would have no special reason to object to the transfer, though she might object to it on account of the payment, and France, in her present circumstances, would hardly venture to make it a casu.s belli. Altogether, it seems far from impossible that the close of the war may see Great Britain in peaceable possession of both gates of the Mediterranean, and a new iield for the extension of British influence and British civilization opened in the Levant, and ultimately, perhaps, in the Euphrates Valley.