THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 410, 21 August 1877, Page 3

THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

RECENT EVENTS SXniMAKISED. It is asserted that the evacuation of the Dobrudschr- was a ruse to lull the enemy into BecTirity, and to concentrate a large portion of t-'"7 .Turkish force in Bulgaria. It would s*_l".\i to have been by a prearranged piitn that the Turks, after a strong show of resistance against the passage of the Danube, retired most probably Lecause it was considered unsafe to continue acting upon the defensive while an enemy was within a comparatively easy distance from its main army corps, and from which it could without difficulty draw reinforcements. The inactivity of the garrisons of Shumla, Rustchuk, and Varna, when the railroad between the last - named place and Rasgrad was being destroyed by the army of General Zimmermann, may be attributed to the desire on the part of the Turks to reserve themselves for the grand coup, which now appears to have been made. The Ottoman tactics have been directed towards the disintegration of the Russian army, and for this purpose the passage of the Balkans was unopposed. They knew that an army separated by that mountain range from its basis of operations could not withstand the force that might be brought against it from Adrianople,'and, if needed, from Constantinople. It was intended to allow the Russians in Bulgaria to weaken themselves by the withdrawal of soldiers to occupy E&ki Sagra beyond the Balkans, and to carry out their intention of investing Silistria and Rustchuk. When the descriptive accounts of the course of events arrives it will most probably be found that this dismemberment of the Russian army was the signal for the attack that custd its defeat between Plevna and Nicopolis, and the attempt that led to the recapture of Eski Sagra by Sulitman Pasha. Although the Turks may not be adepts in the scientiuc kriegspeil of Moltke, events have shown that there was a great deal of method in thtir seeming madness.