THE ASSAULT ON THE SHIPKA PASS: SULIEMAN PASHA'S DEFENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 10, 11 January 1879, Page 4

THE ASSAULT O N THE SHIPKA PASS : SULIEMAN PASHA'S DEFENCE.

The crowning folly of the Turkish campaign on the Balkan Peninsula was the series of desperate assaults at Shipfca Pass. At a critical moment, when the Russian army bad been defeated at Plevna and seemed to be falling to pieces, Sulieman's victorious troops were hurled against an impregnable po-iiiun — fairly braimd against a stone wall, to ut<e Mr Forbes's phrase. The trial of the genera! before the Seraskieraie, which has been going on fT nearly ffur months, hiis hriuuht to light the remarkable i«ct that he was not pol«-)y renpnus-ible for ihat fonlieb altbraigb beri'ie enterprise before Shipka, whii-L Ci^t si much blood and foiled all other miiiary i-Dmbinati'-ns, and which was t\w prime cati^e of tl c Wi«-astera by whit'Ji it was followed. With animated gesture and fiery eye, and an eloquence which held his aud enre spell-bound, the accused general denounced the organisation which pervaded from the ouießt of hostilities the military stuff of the Ottoman armies This he attributes prinripilly to the Minister of War nd the Military Councils, who wanted to Die die wit-i the direction o* the operations. He blames, in energetic termtj tUe constant interference of the Palncr and oi Mahm<>ud Damad Pasha in ihe military affairs and with vindictive pleasure unrolla before the eyes oi hit* juii^es, a series of telegrams and deepatu- es, the authenticity of which cannot be disputed, an.i of which the > Hivhal mnkeß skil v 1 use to brand with infamy the War M'nister and all the civil aud military Pashas who have leeu his auxiliaries. So effective was the defence, that the Vice- 1 let-ident of the Court was despatched to "Yielding Kiosque to advise tbe Sultan to quash tbe trial by inducing Suliermn to accept, if possib c, a profound conviction for some slight faults for which he could be adjudged responsible.