EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY OF RUSSIAN GUNS AND BTORES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 244, 15 October 1877, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY OF RUSSIAN GUNS AND BTORES.

A correspondent at St. Petersburg, writhing tinder date of the 14th Atigust, sends us (the Globe) the foliowiog particulars of an extensive robbery of guns and stores at Kertch, which had caused a great sensation throughout Russia. A flaw days ago, as the inspector of artillery stores at Kertch was making his dsily rounds, he encountered one of bis storekeepers riding in a covered waggon heavily laden. The _van returned evasive answer to enquiries which were addressed to him, but on the , inspector stopping the horses and demanding fuller explanations, the storekeeper admitted that he had two mortars, one o -three- pounder, weighing 6cwt, and the other a nine-pounder, weighing nearly half a ton. These, he asserted, the depdt had received sudden orders to despatch to the Government Forwarding Office. The Inspector's suspioious being aroused, he made the man return to ibe depot, where the officials denied all knowledge of the alleged order. The storekeeper and driver were both put under arrest, and the Governor informed of the attempted robbery. He immediately ordered a strict inquiry to be made into the affair, and for this purpose appointed a eommtsion, Tha . discovery was then made that eight pieces of ordnance of various sizes had been removed from the for trees, ' While .the naval aud military stores had suffered serious depletion. Ultimately all the missing guns, except one, were found secreted in a private bouse in Kertch, were there waa immense quantities of Government gunpoWder, cases of stolen machinery, sacktuis of broken metal, and stacks of trenching tools. It was also ascertained that large quantities of old metal had been disposed of for merely nominal prices to Jewish merchants. The embezzlement of stores has been going on for some years, but has only assumed large proportions since the war began. Most of the subordinate officials connected with the depdt are implicated in the robbery st Kertch, besides several Greek and Jewish metal merchants. A courtmartial has been instituted to try the defendants.