THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20107, 28 March 1928, Page 3

THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

MARCH 28.—THE CRIMEAN WAR (By Charles Conway.) Seventy-four years ago, ou March 28, 1854, Great Britain declared war against Russia and became involved in the arduous and sanguinary campaign known as the Criihean War. For many years Russia had been seeking an excuse for invading Turkey, with the object of securing possession of Constantinople and the Bosporus, and thus obtaining uncontrolled access into the Mediterranean Sea, but it was not until the middle of last century that she could find any reasonable ground upon which to base hostilities. In 1740 a treaty nad been entered into between Turkey and France, whereby the former had given the latter the custody of the many sacred places in and around Jerusalem, to which the members of the Greek and Latin Catholic churches made constant pilgrimages. For over a hundred years France neglected the duties imposed on her by the treaty, and the custody and the repair of the Christian shrines in Palestine had been left almost entirely to the members of the Greek church, over which Russia exercised a protectorship.

In 1850 the monks of the Greek church in the Holy Land had a serious quarrel -with the Roman Catholics regarding their respective rights over tne sacred places in Jerusalem, and Louis Napoleon, who was anxious to gain the good-will of the French clerical party, sought to enforce the rights of Franco under the neglected treaty of 1740. Turkey was quite willing to comply with. the French demands, but Russia eagerly seized the opportunity to make trouble, and not only made an energetic protest, but claimed the right to sovereignty over all Turkish subjects who were members of the Greek church. Russia at the same time made many futile attempts to secure the co-opera-tion of Great Britain in driving the Turk out of Europe into Asia, suggesting that the two nations should divide the territory so gained between them. Finally in July 1853 Russia took the offensive and seized the Turkish principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which led to Turkey declaring war on October 30. A month later the destruction of the Turkish fleet by the Russians in Sinope Bay caused Great Britain and France to despatch a combined fleet into the Black Sea to protect their respective interests and to compel the Russian fleet to return to port at Scbastapol. Strenuous efforts were made by the allies to induce Russia to moderate her demands, but without success, and on March 28, 1854, the allies made a formal declaration of war.

Great Britain was totally unprepared for the conflict, and the campaign was one long series of almost incredible blunders. The British troops were landed on the Crimean peninsula with? out proper provision being made for their food, shelter or medical attention, and the sufferings of the unfortunate soldiers, especially during the severe Russian winter, were terrible. The majority of the casualties were not the result of actual warfare, but were caused by preventive diseases, and the ravages of death would have been considerably greater had it not been for the timely arrival on the scene of Florence Nightingale and her noble band of nurses.

The horrors and the shame of the campaign, which lasted for nearly twIS years and resulted in the submission of Russia, was brightened by the personal bravery and endurance shown by the British troops, notably at the overmemorable battles of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman and at the siege of Sebastapol.—(Copyrighted).