Russia also has a South Africa upon her hands. The
Tekke Turcomans,,eouth-oast of the Caspian, give her as much trouble as the Zane have given to England, and the Czar has ordered his best General, Seobeleff, to subdue thorn. The first great step in the process is to carry the fortified position of Geok Tepe, and he has for some weeks been besieging it. On the 9th inst., 30,000 Tureomans attacked his entrenchments, and were only beaten back after a desperate engagement, in which the Russians, who are 15,000 strong, lest 17 officers and 186 men. On the 10th, however, they carried the outworks, and were at the latest advices still besieging them. At the present rate of progress, they will reach Merv, the Turcoman capital, in 1882, and then• we must be prepared for another burst of Rnssophobia. Mery threatens Herat, and Herat Candahar, and Candahar Scinde„ and so on. As we shall fight Russia, if we have to fight her, in the Black Sea or the Baltic, all this alarm is groundless ; but it exists, and is used as an argument for wasting our resources before the light comes on, by retaining unjust possession of Candahar.
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