RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS IN ASIA.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1737, 13 September 1879, Page 3

RUSSIAN MOVEMENTS IN ASIA.

The Berlin correspondent of the "Standard” says :—“ So far as Russian movements in Central Asia can be discerned at this early stage, two armies have been formed for the purpose of concentric operation from west to north. The one, called the Akhal Tekke Corps, proceeds along the northern slopes of the Kopet Dagh, and making for the valley of the River Tejend, endeavors to reach the capital of the Akhal Tekke, variously called Akhal or Tejend. While this advance is being made from the Caspian side, another corps, called the Solur Expedition, crosses the Amu at or near Tehardjui, and operating in the steppe, prevents the Akhal Tekke from flying before the western force into the pathless wilds. If the expedition succeeds, both corps will meet at Merv, the object of their concentric operations. Both corps are already on the march. In the meantime we learn that the works for diverting the Amu into the Caspian are being pushed with the greatest alacrity. The map illustrating the campaigns of Alexander the Great, drawn by M. Barbier do Baoago, in 1824, and published in Angelas Main’s ‘ Itinerare um Alexandri Magni,’ gives a good idea of the ancient beds of the Amu, the southernmost of which it is intended to restore.”

The ‘‘Journal d’Odessa” says that tho Commission charged to lay a submarine cable across the Caspian Sea has terminated its preparatory labors. The cable will stretch from Cape Gourgian to Kransnovopsk, a distance of 150 miles, and will cost 700,000 roubles. It is to be sent from London to St. Petersburg next month, and laid down by the end of September. An aerial line will join Tchikielar to Astrabad. Telegrams from the former place will follow the route Astrabad-Teheran, and thence by Indo-European line to Tiflis. The aerial line between Bakso and the station at Apsoheronsky is expected to be ready in two months. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the “ Telegraph” writes :—“ The Baltic fleet has commenced its annual exercise, after laying up all the winter in Cronstaat, It cannot bo said that, so far, its movements have been attended with success. The Peter the Great, the Russian ironclad, ran aground going out of harbor and was got off, after three days, by a fortunate rise in the water, consequent on a _ strong wind up the gulf, and by discharging all her armaments and stores. Of the monitor-fleet, it is reported that as soon as they were at sea it was discovered that in several of them the engines were oat of order, and one of them, the Ooldune, was found to bo leaking so dangerously that not only was she sent back immediately to Oronstadt, but tho _ crew had been discharged, as it is considered that she will not be fit for sea again this season. The torpedo-fleet is also exercising among the islands of the Gulf of Finland. We have, as yet, no report of its movements, but I have heard privately that it required great knowledge of official ways to enable the builders to get many of these craft passed. The boilers, it appears, are unfit to work under the pressure required for efficiency in this class of boat. The tor-pedo-fleet was formed under tho influence of the panic which prevailed herons to the possibility of the appearance of English war-ships in the Baltic. It is a remarkable fact that nearly the whole of the craft was built either by British subjects or by men of English origin.”