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Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 932, 13 June 1878, Page 3

Russian Prepaebdness.— " In the Baltic sho will have a fleet of 27 ironclads free from the clutches of Jack Frost ; her Baltic defences will have received their complement of 38-ton guns ; every assailable point will have been protected by torpedoes. In the Pacific her scattered squadrons will have safely anchored within the harbour of Vladivostock, which will have received the heavy ordnance that are now on their way thither from Europe. In Central Asia the forts will have b.:» furnished with stores sufli-

cient tb enable them to resist the attack from India, which General Kaufman professes to consider a possibility. In European Russia the rivers and the railways, free from ice and show, and the high roads clear Of mud— three feet deep — that encumbers them duuring April aud May, will be m a condition to facilitate the transport of nuUerkl, and the Black Sea outlets being no longer ' bunged ' up by a blockading squadron, stores and troops could be transported direct across the water to Bourgas and Midia. The insurrection being quelled m the Caucasus, and Russia no longer fighting against the Prophet, she will be able to avail herself of those Tartar and Circassian troops she has been obliged hitherto to keep to the rear. 'Ihe militia raised m Armenia will have relieved Loris Mehkoff of the duty of garrisoning Kars and Erzeroum, and he will be able to move his aimy either to Europe or else to effect a landing on the Asiatic side of Constantinople. In Europe Russia will have all the fortresses on the Danube m her hands. Her ironclads and torpedos flotila will dominate the Danube, and it may be safely assumed that if Austria and Roumania turn against her they wiU have a tougher job of crossing the river to attack the army of Adrianople m the rear than the Grand JJuke Nicholas had. On the Sea of Marmora, Rodosto will have been strongly fortified, and a flotilla of 125 brand new torpedo steamers collected at each extremity of the waterway. At the Dardanelles, within one night's march of the Straits, she will have massed 150,000 men; double that number will have gathered on the outskirts of Constantinople, while the Black Sea fleet will have concentrated at Midia. Everything being now ready, Russia will break up the Conference, dash forward upon the Dardanelles, seize the Bosphorus, cram the channel m both places with torpedoes, and fill the inlet to e.ach strait with a swarm of torpedo vessels, mass her troops m earthworks and forts on both the peninsulas, and then dare the astounded British Lion to do his worst."