THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE PACIFIC.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 916, 1 June 1877, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE PACIFIC.

The Auckland Herald has been informed by a passenger by the City of New York that previous to that vessel leaving San Francisco, a telegram was received by the Russian Consul at San Francisco from the Consul of that nation at Philadelphia, directing him to proceed to Honolulu and endeavor to make such arrangements with the King of that island, so that the Russian squadron in the Pacific might count upon obtaining supplies and other accommodations in the event of war. The eight ships of war arc still at San Francisco

Referring to the same fleet, the Melbourne Argus says :—The cable message published elsewhere states that the Russian fleet has left America under sealed orders. It may be necessary to remind our readers that there have been two squadrons in the ports of that country the vessels belonging to the North Pacific command, of the arrival of which at San Francisco we heard some time since; and the Mediterranean squadron, which anchored off New York on the 24th of March last, and is now reported to have sailed from thence a few days ago. We leam by the San Francisco mail that so far back as April 24th the Russian fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific had been ordered to concentrate in the Mediterranean, but whether the fleet that is referred to in to-day's telegram is one of these or not, it is impossible to say. It seems somewhat strange that the British consuls on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts respectively should have omitted to furnish the G-overnors of these colonies with any information as to the movements of these squadrons, inasmuch as, in the critical condition of affairs in the Levant, and in view of the not altogether impossible rupture of the friendly relations hitherto subsisting between Great Britain and Russia, we must regard with an uneasy vigilance the action of Russia on the high seas. We have reason to believe, however, that the British consul at San Francisco has bpen communicated with, anc | we may expect shortly to hear something definite from that quarter. The news from the seat of war in Europe throws some doubt on the invasion of the Dobrudscha by Russia; while the intelligence from the Asiatic shores of the Black Sea intimates that the Circassians in the Western Caucasus have risen against the Russian garrison at Sukhum-Kaleh, and have captured it. But this reaches us through a Turkish channel, and must await verification accordingly. We pointed out the likelihood of such an insurrection, because the disaffection of the whole of the population of Circassia, numbering between 600,000 and 700,000 souls, is a notorious fact; while the tribes inhabiting the mountainous regions at the rear of Sukhum-Kaleh, and comprising about 60,000 hardy and warlike people, have long been a source of annoyance and disquietude to the 1 neighbouring garrisons on the coast beneath.