MAIL NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2633, 16 June 1877, Page 2

MAIL NEWS.

nUSSO-TUEKISH "WAR.

The Russian attacking force which captured Ardahan numbered eight thousand, besides several thousands in front of the town. During the Turkish flight the Russian cavalry inflicted a loss of seven hundred on the enemy.

A force of fifteen thousand Bashi Bazouks and Kurds has moved northwards from Lake Van to join the Turkish forces at Korakalisa. The Russian advance in Asia has been delayed by the difficulty of procuring provisions in Armenia. In the attack on Batoum, where the Turks defeated the Russians with a loss of four thousand men, the Turks were entrenched on the heights defending the town, with a fleet outside. As the Russians advanced to the attack, the Turks mowed them down by hundreds by a well directed fire of cannon and musketry. A sortie by the Turks under cover of a thick forest outflanked the Eussians and inflicted a serious defeat. The courage of the Bashi-Bazouks is highly extolled. The Russians did not withdraw till midnight. They lost several cannons. A Russian war steamer, which had run the gauntlet from Sebastopol, endeavored to place a torpedo under the Turkish frigate off Batoum. The torpedo failed to explode, and the vessel was driven off.

Admiral Hassan Pasha, with six ironclads, bombarded Soukhum Kaleh. He landed a body of troops, and the natives of Abasia fraternised with them and drove the Russians out. Ten thousand of the population of Abasia united with the Turks.

The defeat of the Russians below Reni was a reconnoitreing force in boats. The Turks waited till they came within easy range, and then opened a destructive fire. The Russians have sunk torpedoes opposite Matashin and Galatz to harass the Turkish gunboats. They constructed a battery of heayy guns at the Ghiatic (?) mouth of the Danube. The Turks have massed a large body ef cavalry opposite Galatz. GeneralKokeleff's Circassian Cossacks, intended to lead the advance of the invading army on the Danube, passed through Bucharest. TLe Turks made three atiempts to cross the Danube and construct a battery at Islatz, but were repulsed by the Roumanians. The Porte have notified to the European Powers that they have blockaded all the ports of the Black Sea. The Servians are making offensive preparations. It is said that the Servian Government have received proofs that a convention exists between Russia and Austria. Eossuth has written urging an alliance between Hungary and Turkey to protect their independence from the common jenemy—Russia. All tae Hungarian papers urge action by Austro-Hungary.

All Mussulmans in Herzegovina and Bosnia between the ages of sixteen and sixty have been ordered to join the army. The centre of the Russian army, forty thousand strong, under Melidoff, was attacked by Mukhtar Pasha five miles outside ELars. The Russians, supported by powerful artillery, dislodged them. Mukhtar called out the reserves, and attempted on the 30th to recover lost ground with sixty thousand men, but was defeated and driven back under the guns of Ears, The Russian losses were considerable; the Turkish enormous. Bulgarian refugees in Boumania are being armed. On bombardment by the Turkish monitors, the inhabitants of Reni, Ibrail and Alenitza fled. The Turkish force sent to Soukhum Kaleh to aid the Circassians, numbered ten thousand. The Russian forces in Rouunrria are estimated.at 240,000.

The Turkish force north of the Balkans is 250,000.

The Turkish, needle gun is said to have caused the strengthening of the Russian army.