The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-21
ON THE LATE SUCCESSES OF THE ALLIES.
From the London Times

From the London Times
The victorious occupation of the town of
kertsch by the Allied forces, the command we
have thus obtained of the Cimmerian Bospho-
rus and the Sea of Azof, and the establishment
OF our power upon another point of the highest
strategical Importance in the Russian terri
tories, are events which augur most auspiciously
Tor the success OF the campaign in which we
are now about to engage, and place in our
hands another material pledge for the triumph
ant termination of the war.
This result is the more glorious and the more
extraordinary, as the Russians must long have
foreseen that such an operation would, sooner
or later, be attempted; and there is no point
III the vast dominiOns of Russia. the loss of
which Is more formidable to that Empire In
decd, II the Allies proceeded no further than
to occupy and hold the Straits of Yenikale
and the adjacent peninsula of Kertsch, which
Is easily detensible by any Power having the
command of the sea, they would remain in the
possession OF the key to one of the principal
approaches to the Russian territories In 1851,
no less than one thousand trading vessels
passed the Straits. Taganrog, Marianopol,
Berdianski, and Kertscb, all commercial towns,
which it has been the policy of the Russian
Government to protect and foster with the ut
most care for the last seventy years. exist only
by the freedom of trade between the Sea of
Azof and the Edxine. The whole exports of
the valley of the Don and its tributaries. and
the communication between the Don and the
Voga, which places the trade of that mighty
stream in connection with the markets Gf Eu-
rope, all depend upon this neck of the Sea of
Azohf; so that it is no exaggeration to assert
that our occupation of Kertsch will be felt in
the interior of Russia, even to Kazar and
Nishni Novgorod.
On the Asiatic shore of the Straits, the Rus
slams have also destroyed their Notifications, so
that both sides may be occupied, and the allied
forces will threaten or blockade Anapa, which
is the key to the whole Circassian coast.
Kertsch itself is fourishing town of about
10000 Inhabitants, built entirely of substantial
stone houses. The inhabitants are chiefly Greeks
and Tartars, and for the first time since the
commencement of these operations our troops
will find themselves in contact with what may
be termed, by comparison, civilized com
munity. The climate, though cold in winter,
is healthy and genial in this season. The sur
rounding country, which is termed by the Rus
slams the district of Kertsch- Enikolsk, is luxu-
riantly fertile wherever it is cultivated. 1t is
separated from Kaffa by about sixty miles of
undulating plain, lying between the Sea of Azoff
and the Black Sea, and of isthmus dividing
the Bay of Kaffa from that of Arabat is not
more IMAM Twelve miles IN breadth.
more favorable position either for military
or commercial operations cannot be found, and
in the f1ourishing days of the Crimea, both in
antiquity, under the Genoese, and even under
the Khan of Khazaria, the chief seat of power
and of wealth was always on this eastern ex-
tremity of the peninsula. These facts being
well known, it is difficult to explain why this
expedition was not made at much earlier
period of the war, for the forces which languish-
ed during last July at Varna might have long
since seized the forts of Yenkale.
Among the other immediate advantages re-
sulting from the occupation of the Straits, may
by reckoned the interruption of the supplies
which the Russian army in the Crimea has
hitherto drawn from the Sea of Azoff Very
large quantities of wheat -four, and oats, were
found at Kertsch, und upwards of, sixty vessels
engaged in this service, of which about half
| were burnt by the enemy and half were taken.
The maintenance of large army in the interior
| of the Crlmea will become a task of insuperable
difficulty, if the whole of its supplies and food
have to be brought by land across the steppes
north of the Salghir. The Crimea itself does
not produce corn enough to feed its own sparse
| population, and it was by communication with
the ineXhaustible granaries of the Sea of Azoff
| that the Russian magazines were supplied.
| This circumstance may serve to account in
part for the fact that the Russians have ap-
parently not attempted to throw very large
reinforcements into the Crimea.
| The last despatch received from Gen. Pes-
sier announces that the Allied forces have now
occupied the whole line of the Tchernaya, and
that this operation met with no serious resist
ance, the Russians having speedily retired be-
hind the hills. This fresh success confirms us
in the opinion that the unseen strength of the
enemy in the Crimea has been overrated, and
that he is by no means in acondition to oppose
simultaneously the combined movements of the
three armies at Eupatoria, at Kertsch, and be-
fore Sebastopol. The greater probability now
appears to be- that on the advance of the Allies,
in whatever direction they may assume the Of
fensive, the Russians will find themselves COM
pellec to retreat from nferiority of numbers
and want of supplies and the more so, as the
Sea of Azof being navigable for our steam gun
boats, their base of operation may be threat
| ,~o1 H.