SPECIAL CABLE WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5153, 28 September 1877, Page 2

SPECIAL CABLE WAR NEWS.

TO THE EDITOR Of THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, — I am not a newspaper man, ami don’t understand much about how latest telegrams como to hand, but a leader in to-night’s Evening Pos£ has completely staggered me. It says that a Reuter's telegram dated Bombay, September 25, entirely confirms a special message to the Post , dated London, September 21, in which it is stated that the Turks were defeated after an unsuccessful attack on a position (unnamed), with a loss of 2600 men, the very date of the London telegram, viz., the 21st. Nowwhatlwant to know is this—Thespecial correspondent of the Evening Post being necessarily on the field of battle on the 21st, how was he able to count the exact number of killed and wounded at the very moment of the crisis, and telegraph it to Loudon in lime for publication in the London evening papers of the same day. Of course there are telegraph stations at or near every position where an action is being fought —even though it may have been at so obscure a place as Chernova, a small branch of the. f antra —and I fully recognise that enterprise, particularly that of special correspondents, will overcome almost any dilliculties ; but I would modestly ask if it is likely that

at such a place as Chernova telegraphic communication would be so perfect and the. special correspondent of any paper so übiquitous as to be able to telegraph on the 'very day of the occurrence not only the fact of a defeat, but the actual loss ' sustained; bearing in mind that the telegraph wires are in the hands of the respective belligerent Governments, and have to abide the delay of inevitable Government censorship.—l have, &c., An Anxious Enquirer. Wellington, September 27.