THE EVACUATION OF THE CRIMEA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 22 March 1911, Page 2

THE EVACUATION OF THE CRIMEA.

On July 12, 15.",6, began the evacuation of the Crimea by the Allied Forces, English and French, at the conclusion of the terrible war which had waged for about, three years. This war was the outcome of the aggressive attitude assumed by Russia in 1852 towards Turkey, to whom the Crimea had once belonged. The Czar, Nicholas 111., one of the most astute and ambitious of Rus.-i;:n rulers, claimed the right to protect. Christians of the Greek Church under Turkish rule. The Sultan was recommended by tiie Great. Powers to accede to the Czar s demand. He, however, refused, and Russia precipitated war by occupying Turkish territory near the mouth of the Danube. England and France, unwilling to see Russia dominant in the Balkan States, allied themselves with Turkey, and sent a powerful combined ileet and army to the Crimea, with the main object of destroying Sebastopol, which had been strongly fortified, as a menace to Turkey. The Russians sustained three very severe defeats at Balaclava, Alma, and Inkerman. Sebastopol, which had been invested immediately after the battle of the Alma, was evacuated by the Russians after holding out for nearly a year. By a treaty of peace, signed at Paris in 185(i, Russia promised not to keep a fleet of ships in the Black Sea, and not to re-fortify Sebastopol. The former agreement, however, she was released from by the Great Powers in 1871.