Scenes of Riot and Turbulence.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8240, 8 September 1905, Page 5

Scenes of Riot and Turbulence.

Troops Sent to Suppress the Disturbances. Armenians Butchered by Tartars. (Receired To-day, at S.S:J a.in ) St. Petkksiu-ro, Last Night. Five hundred oil towers, forty of which belonged to the Nobel Company, and many naptha storehouses at Baku are in ilames. The riots are increasing. The Czar has ordered their rigorous suppression. Troops are being sent to Baku from Tiilis. The forces at Balakhany beinginsulliciont to cope with the rioters, artillery has been sent. The conflagration continues. The whole of the Yelisavetpol region (ninety miles south-east of Tiilis) is described as a battlefield. Tartars butchered the Armenians at Minkend, in Trans-Caucasia. : Baku is one of the most frequented Russian ports on the western shores of the Caspian. It is defended by two strong forts, but the town, as a whole, is very poorly built. Its chief exports are naptha, salt and saffron. The first-named is obtained from copious springs, near which is a place known as the "Field"of Fire," which covers half a square mile, and is continually emitting inflammable gas. Tiilis is a city in Asiatic Russia, and the most important town in Transcaucasia. It has an imposing appearance when seen from a distance, but the streets are narrow, lilthy and dusty. The city has long been celebrated for its baths, which are the daily resort of both sexes as places of luxury and amusement. The manufactures include carpets, silks, shawls, etc., and the trade, which is chiefly in the hands of Armenians, is very extensive. It is an ancient city, and was at one time larger than it is now, It was formerly the capital of the K'ngdom of Georgia, with which it came into the possession of Russia over a century ago.'