SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2693, 9 May 1885, Page 2

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

GENERAL SUMMARY. San Francisco, April 21. The Goule Transalantic cables and the Bennett-Mackay Company are engaged in a war of rates, and have opened with a rate of 6d per word. Sarah Bernhardt is rapidly decliuing in health. The Ameer of Afghanistan having expressed a desire to visit England, Lord Dufferin, at the request of the Cabinet, has invited him to London as the guest of the Crown. The Berlin newspapers comment upon the fact that Queen Victoria did not send congratulations to Bismarck on his birthday. All the other rulers sent theirs. It is claimed that at the next parliamentary electiou a majority of the Liberals will be returned, and Gladstone will then retire in favor of Lord Hartington. THE RUSSIAN ATTACK ON THE AFGHANS. A despach to The Times from Gewian, dated 3rd April, states that the Russians while making a pretext of changing the positions of their out-posts on the Afghan frontier, attacked Penjdah on the 30th March, and drove the Afghans off that position. The Afghans stubbornly resisted their assailants. The weather was wet at the time of the attack, which rendered the muzzleloading guns of the Afghans useless. Two companies held one position against the Russians until all the defenders were killed. The Afghans retreated to Maruchak in perfect order. The Russians made no pursuit. The Russians plundered the Afghan camp. The British officers remained till the Afghans effected their retreat, when they joined the camp of Sir Peter Lumsden. The report of the affair by General Komaroff, the Russian General, says that the manifestations by the Afghans were so hostile that he was compelled to attack them. The Afghans were posted on both sides of the river Kushk in fortified positions, and their force consisted of 4000 men with eight guns. They lost 500 men, all their artillery, their camp outfit and their provisions. The Russian loss was three subalterns and ten soldiers killed and twenty-nine wounded. When the fighting was ended General Komaroff returned across the river to the position he had formerly occupied. Some of the British officers were eyewitnesses of the engagement, but did not participate. Tbey applied to the Russians for protection when they saw the Afghans were beaten, but unfortunately the convoy that was immediately despatched to the relief of the officers was unable to overthrow the Afghan cavalry, who carried the officers away with them in their flight. Fears are expressed that these officers fell.