29 DECEMBER 1877, Page 15

THE RUSSIAN PRISONERS.

[TO TES EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] 'Silt,—The note in your last number on the absence of Russian prisoners in Plevna set me thinking on a question that has often been asked, but never answered,—" What has become of all the Russian prisoners who must have fallen into the hands of the Turks ?" Perhaps the following suggestive fact may throw some light on this point. I have a young relative, an officer in the Army, who has just returned from a six weeks' tour in Turkey. During the course of this he stopped at Sofia and Adrianople, visited the Turkish positions in the Shipka Pass, was present at the capture of Etropol, the evacuation of Orkhanie, and the Russian attack on Kamarli. It is obvious, therefore, that ho was in all the places where Russian prisoners should have most abounded. He, like most other British officers, has strong Turkish sympathies, and was loud in his praise of the courteous reception he had met with ; yet when I put to him the question, 4' How many Russian prisoners did you see?" he was compelled

to answer, " About five."—I am, Sir, &c., F. R. C. P.