THE TURKS' ALARM

Nelson Evening Mail, 25 May 1916, Page 5

THE TURKS' ALARM

HURRYING TROOPS TO ASIA MINOR. LONDON, May 23. Tho Times correspondent at Bucharest .state;, that the Turks are hurrying all reinforcements to the interior of Asia Minor, leaving only 150.000 tfr ~ defend Constantinople, Gallipoli, and the Asia Minor Coast from Aivili (east of Mitylene) to Eregli (in the Black Sea). 'German officers are urging the danger of leaving the European front practically undefended. Twelve thousand Austria us have gone to Bagdad, and four thousand Germans are going. The Turks are heavily concentrating north-west of the point where the Bagdad railway line crosses the Euphrates, fearing the Allies' will attack from Alexandrett-a. DISPOSITION OF TURKISH FORCES. LONDON, May 25. The Daily Mail correspondent at Athens gives the number and disposition of the Turkish forces' as follows: —General von Sanders commands from the Dardanelles to Adalia, with 180, COO men, including 50,000 at the Dardanelles. General von Trommer is in Thrace, with 55,000. In Constantinople there are 35,000, including many Austrians. Djenial Pasha, in Syria, .has 70,000, while in the Caucasus there eto 400,000, and in Mesopotamia 120,000 — a, total of 860,000. These probably include many ineffectives. RUSSIAN DASH TO THE TIGRIS. LONDON", May 22. The Russian cavalry which has reach-, ed the Tigris is General BaratofFs column, which seized- Kfteri Shirin, near the Thrysh frontier, a fortnight ago. The Russians . probably came from Kermanshah and Chardowar, over the Pusbt-i-Ivuh Hills to Bedrai, and then over the desert, .a total distance of 200 miles, through country inhabited by hostile ■ Kurdish, nillsmen. The achievement was a remarkable and clashing one.

RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN ARMENIA AND PERSIA. MOSUL, THE iOBJECTIVE. •■{Official.} PETROGRAD-, May 24. Repeated Turkish offensives south of Trebizond were repulsed. ; We dislodged the Turks from a [position on the northern slopes o£ the We have occupied Serdisht, in ""the' direction of Mosul, on the Persian side, of tlie frontier.