Russian Operations in Australian Waters.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 4

Russian Operations in Australian Waters.

A coiinv^roNDKNT signing hi'iiT l *" "L. (Vwiites to the " Sfc Jamc^ Gazette " as follows : — " The coolness of the Russians in making plans of our new fotts at Singapore and in openly surveying the ports under our protectorate in Borneo, is in keeping with the systematic reconnaissance of Australasia which they have been cat ry ing on for many year*. It began in 1 867, ■> when a Russian man-of-war spent several months in Hobr-on's Bay, the gulf at the head of which is Melbourne. After they had smveyed its coast and mastered the intri- ' cades of the navigation through the Heads they ostensibly took their depruture ; and it was not till after some considerable timo had elapsed that they were discovered at anchor in Western Part — a bay of which the then uninhabited shores run to within 20 miles of Melbourne, and w Inch has always been considered from a military point of \ iew as the most vulnerable spot in the neighbourhood of the capital. "Early in 1872 Russian ships made an exhaustive survey of the southern coasts of Tasmania, especially of the estuary of the Derwent, upon which stands Hobart, the chief town of the island. At that time, although already admitted to be one of the most important strategic positions in the bouth Pacific, Hobart was absolutely defenceless ; and even now, although the Tasmanians have spent money in batteries and guns, ifc is far from being in a position to offer any effective resistance to heavily-armed : cruisers. Since then a Russian warship of some kind or other has generally been hanging about Australia. When questioned as to their intentions, the officers blandly reply that they are pursuing the science of surveying, in which they can have np better instructors than the English, whose soundings on the Admiralty charts they are humbly verifying. Not content with studying the ports of the different colonial capitals, the Russians have thoroughly visited all the smaller seaport towns where the British navy never touch, and thus possess more local knowledge than our own naval officers. "In 1882 there was a Muscovite squadron of three heavily-armed swift steamers, exAtlantic liners, in Australian waters. They had announced their intention of paying a visit to the capital of South Australia. Adelai le is on a gulf, the entrance Lv which is protected by the natural breakwater of Kangaroo Island. The navigation on either Bide is not of the easiest ; and most strangers prefer bringing their ships through the , shoals of St. Vincent's Gulf slowly and by daylight. The lighthouse- keepers were on 1 elook-out for the squadron, but the Russians, selecting a very dark night for their arrival, slipped past unperceived, and, steaming at their hardest through these unfamiliar waters, had anchored before dawn off Glenelg, six miles from Adelaide, to the astonishment of tho inhabitants of that fashionable watering-place. "The officers of the local militia duly entertained the Russian visitors, and after a sufficient expenditure of champagne, so far succeeded in unloosing the tongues of some of the younger guests that they confessed they were studying Australia from the point of view of the next war, and deciding which of the seaport towns it would be most easy either to ransom or to destroy. The British squadron', they boasted, could not catch them 'We know tho speed of every one of your ships on the Australian station, and could run away from any of them. Our policy will be to hang about your coasts, burn your woolships, and capture the gold on board the P. and 0. and Orient steamers.'" -