DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT RUSTCHUK.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5139, 12 September 1877, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT RUSTCHUK.

Brief telegrams have already been published announcing the utter destruction of the residence of the British Consul at Rustchuk, and attributing the act to the deliberately aimed fire of the Russian artillery at Giurgevo. A correspondent of 'The, Times frotn.Shumla, under date the 29th ult., gives an account of the bombardment, which fully bears out' the statement previously made as to the designs of the commanders ’ of the, Russian batteries. He Bays:—Last Sunday, about three in the afternoon, some Englishmen were sitting in the. gardens of the Hotel Hislah, and were drinking coffee. ' The • esplanade fronting the river, was lined with the holiday loungers—men, women, and children in Sunday finery—for the late rumors of peace had induced numbers to return to Rustchuk. A sullen boom and puff of white smoke across the Danube, and the screaming of a shell which seemed to pass immediately over the hotel, , excited interest but no great alarm. The shell fell in the Armenian quarter. After the first scare there was laughter among the riverside crowd, and conversation in the garden. About 15 minutes after a puff all along the opposite bank announced that the bombardment of Rustchuk had begun in earnest. Holy Russia had selected ’ that peaceful Sunday afternoon for sending her iron messages of deliverance to Bulgarians, Greeks, and Turks with cynical impartiality. The noise was deafening, especially when, as .they did’ soon afterwards, the Turkish batteries replied. As the shells began to fall all around, somebody cried out, “They are not firing on the forts, but at the town.” It was true. A shell exploded in the garden ; it was time to go. A second still nearer accelerated the strategic movement, but where was the place of safety ? In the streets crash after crash, blinding smoke and the noise of falling building material, gave rise to very- confused notions upon that subject. Hour after hour the pitiless storm fell upon us. The scene near the principal hospital was at once grand and painful. It was well known at Giurgevo that the principal building, with two red crescents on a white ground, was an hospital. On that building the chief fire was directed from the first When I left Rustchuk yesterday it was razed to the ground. The sick were brought out and laid upon mattresses on’ the ground. The Turkish Women exhibited marvellous sang froid as if tired of their uneventful lives. They were to be seen quietly shuffling across the open square under a storm of shells, while women of other and men of all races ran like rabbits into any hole which seemed to offer shelter. So the work went on till sunset. It was found that the British Consulate had suffered great damage, as also had several houses'in the same street, which is near no fort or battery. The Hislah Hane is Turkish Government property, a larger house than Mr. Reade’s, and only separated by the garden. It was not scratched when I left yesterday. I dined there on Wednesday. From careful inspection of two holes in the garden it is certain that the shell which made them were destined, for our Consulate, but fell short. The cavass of the French Consul said to Mr. Reade, “ They are firing at your flag. I saw two shells pass the staff.” Somebody else said, “They can’t distinguish the Union Jack; hoist the larger one.” Consul Reade, who throughout acted with great coolness, reluctantly ran up the big flag six yards by three, It was still there when I left, but the building over which it floated was a wreck half-an-hour after it was hoisted. The French Consul called and implored Mr. Reade to come away, saying, “ It is evident they are firing at your house." Five minutes afterwards "a shell crashed in tho roof, exploding in a. bedroom, and blowing the whole corner of the house away. Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour later another shell • from tho same battery came through the wall, burst in the study of tho Consulate, and, oddly enough, a large splinter seems to have passed right through the Queen’s proclamation which for our benefit was posted on the door. Everything literally everything— desks, papers, chairs, boxes, general office furniture, was

smashed to jdeces, and documents (among them a private jletter waiting for me) had to be slowly dug out of four feet of wreck during three days at intervals when the Russian fire was suspended. A general idea prevails here that the insult was intentional. The Russian artillerymen are perfect, and with modern guns anything aimed at can be hit. Four sheila actually exploded in the buildings, and there is exact evidence that at least other four were meant for the British and American Consulate. Lest it should be thought that the officer on the other side who directs the guns had only contempt for'the English, in the subsequent days of the bombardment French, German, and Austrian . flags were treated in'a similar way. All outside Rustohuk women and children are sleeping in the fields. The wounded lie unattended to, and the dead remain where they fall.'