RUSSIA’S NEXT MOVE.

Patea Mail, 3 January 1882, Page 4

RUSSIA’S NEXT MOVE.

The late telegram stating tlmt Turcoman'chiefs have asked for Ru.»s:an protection and abandoned Merv, is important to the nation which governs India. Does it mean that Russia is ready for action ? To occupy Khiva from fort PetroAlexandrovsk, and Bokhara from Samarcand would bo only the affair of a few weeks. Merv is 430 miles from Khiva and 280 from Bokhara. It is richer, according to Captain Burnaby, than any of the most fertile corn-growing countries in European Russia. It is close to Herat; and, with Afghan assistance, a direct advance might be made on India through the Bolan Pass. Again, from Bokhara to Balkh is a twelve days* march, and from Balkh to Cabul is the same distance. This road can be traversed by artillery in summer and autumn. What object the Russian Court can have in neglecting their interests at home and wasting their revenues in attacking India, it is impossible to say. That the desire exists is almost ■certain. They have now done! all the hard work of traversing the terrible deserts between the Jaxartes and the Oxns, and to make their power felt in Afghanistan is merely a question of opportunity. They are waiting until their forces in Tnrkestan are properly .massed and equipped ; and this depends to a great extent on the progress of their railways and telegraph. They have succeeded in keeping Europeans very much:in the dark about Turkestan affairs, and probably have more men, ammunition, and artillery in that quarter than is generally supposed. If war were declared, Russian war vessels would issue from Pacific ports, and the cities of Australia and New Zealand must rely on ironclads for protection. The effect on our trade would be disastrous. If a single wool vessel were captured by a Russian cruiser, the security of our ocean highways would be felt to be imperilled. It must be remembered that all Turkestan news reaches ns through Russian official sources. Do they intend this telegram as a hint that the crisis has arrived ? It seems like a deliberate challenge.