Russia's Advance.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6711, 26 November 1889, Page 3

Russia's Advance.

[The Turkish Vilayet of Erzeroum, forming a portion of the Armenian highlands, has an area of 27,000 square miles, and an approximate population of 675,000. The capital, of thesamename, is important rather for its strategical position than for its size or population. It lies in a fertile district, a hundred miles Southeast of Trefuzond, on the great tjommer cial highway leading from that town over the plateau to the Persian frontier. But, like most fortified towns, it is irregularly j built, its narrow, dirty streets, flanked by mean .houses, .being crowded together in | the small space enclosed by its lofty walls. The Moslem . largely prevails over the I Christian element, although Erzeroum is the metropolis of the Armenian Church-in i union with Borne .. Its mosques are very numerous, and it. is a chief halting place, for Persian pilgrims on their way to Mecca.] . -■ The following item by the mail to hand last evening is of interest, the date^being Oct. Xl:— This information reaches the Vienna correspondent of the Daily Telegraph from an unimpeachable source _— In Armenia affairs are about as bad as can be — as to to .that there is no question. On the Eussian side everything is being made ready for a " walk over " the frontier at short notice. The Eussian preparations are, inisct, on a far larger scale than those made for the last war. jOn the Turkish side there are no preparations, or next to none, as far as Erzeroum — the Eussian objective — is concerned. EussiaSs next advance on Constantinople will not be made through the Balkan Peninsula. There is, however, little danger of a winter- campaign; indeed, there are manifold symptoms that justify the hope, expressed a few days ago by Prime Minister Tisza, of seeing peace maintained for the present. For instance, the Emperor of Germany's approaching visit to Athens and Constantmople would hardly be. undertaken if war were imminent. Then sundry preparations of paramount importance, such as the construction of .strategic railroads, which it will take some months to complete, have lately been commenced, and that would not hove boen done if war were at hand ; but this much said, it wonld be rash to entertain sanguine expectations as to a prolonged era of peace. Everything points, os the contrary, to events of the utmost gravity for the coming spring. The opinion both at Court and in well-informed political circles is -that the preeent strained situation-cannot