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New Zealand Mail, Issue 766, 5 November 1886, Page 22

Russia is not satisfied to have the proverbial “two strings to her bow she prefers three. Afghanistan and Bulgaria proving insufficient to satisfy her craving for alternative fields in which to display her skill in finesse, Egypt has been added to the list. Accordingly, when one becomes too dangerous she can turn to another, and make play there until the time arrives when a fresh little advance may be made in the first or third. And so the changes are rung. The Afghan negotiations threatened to assume an awkward shape, compelling Russia either to move before she was fullj prepared or else to accept a cheek. So a diversion was suddenly effected in Bulgaria, Prince Alexander being kidnapped and a revolution fomented as the pretext for a Russian occupation of the country. But that did not turn out so well as it was hoped would be the case. Austro-Hungary exhibited disagreeably acute vigilance, and there was also an unpleasant manifestation of a disposition on the part of England and Germany to back up Austria with “moral support” of a very practical kind. Clearly another diversion was here needed, and one which would drag in France and Turkey, to hamper the action of Germany and England. Immediately we find Russia urging Eranee to demand England’s evacuation of Egypt, and then both those Powers—after a sharp rebuff from Germany —inciting Turkey .to order England out of Egypt. This looked really promising at one time, and had the merit, as we recently pointed out, of being a distinct tu guoque to England, as Russia could plead—with what justice matters not precisely the same reasons for intervening in Bulgaria as those upon which England relied as justifying her prolonged occupation of Egypt. But here again another check was encountered by the conspirators. Hardly had this step been taken when it was announced that the Caisse de la Dette Publique had sufficient funds in hand to pay tbe , November coupons, and at the same time to repay previous deductions on coupons. This cut the ground from under France’s feet, leaving her no plausible justification for interference in Egypt. Anybody might have safely predicted an immediate change in the field of operations, either Bulgaria or Afghanistan being brought to the front, vice Egypt, temporarily discarded. And Bulgaria it is. Two Russian warships have been despatched to Yarna, and now we are told that troops are to be landed in Yarna, and are to occupy that town until the ringleaders in the late revolution shall be released unpunished. There is a cynical audacity about this cool proceeding which is essentially Russian. It amounts, of course, to a virtual admission that these ringleaders were mere agents of Russia, and were acting on Russian instigation. But this is not all. The occupation of Yarna practically implies the domination of Bulgaria. Yarna. is a very important post, and must necessarily be the base of operations in a Russian invasion of Bulgaria. It is Bulgaria’s one port, and being situated ou the Black Sea, it would be very easily reached from either Sebastopol or Odessa. That port once oc-

j cupied and constant access secured, Russia could at any. time pour in troops as fast as she liked. Then again Yarna was, prior to the Berlin Treaty, one of the great fortresses of Europe, forming, with Shumla, Rustchuk, and Silistria, the famous Bulgarian Quadrilateral. It is connected by rail with Shumla and Rustchuk. After crossing the Danube from Rustchuk to Giurgevo, there is a railway through Roumania all the way to the Pruth, where the Russian frontier is reached. Given, therefore, a right of passage through friendly Roumania, and Russia could pour in her troops by land as well as by sea so long as such a convenient base as Yarna is possessed. The dismantling of'the-fort’s fortifications, as provided in the Berlin. Treaty, renders it all the more accessible to the Russians, while, once established there, they would speedily, as at Batoum, eonvert it again into a strong fortress.. The drawback to Yarna as a base is its excessively pestilential character.. It lies very low, scarcely above high water mark, and, being abominably dirty and innocent of all sanitary provision, is scourged with disease every summer. It was deemed one of the many disastrous blunders of the Crimean war that the allied troops were transferred from Gallipoli to Yarna in the summer time, and encamped there with the result that they were more than decimated by cholera and fever. The present season is much more favourable to the Russians, as the European winter is fast approaching, and failing any interference on the part of Austria, there would be ample breathing time in which to establish a firm occupation, before the insalubrious period sets in. It will he interesting to learn what is Austria’s counter-move to this last very overt advance of Russia.