Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-06-27
THE PLAGUE IN TIE EAST
ERN WAR.

I
The anxiety Of Europe concerning
the complications of the Turco- Russian
campaign is likely to be increased by
the entrance in the field of battle Of
two unexpected hostile forces, inimlcal
to both sides in the conflict, and threat
ening, moreover, to carry devastation
into neutral territories. Cholera and
plague, from their recruiting stations
in India and Mesopotamia, are on the
march, and under the fostering condi-
tions of.war it is impossible TO foretell
the limits Of their invasion. Last year
cholera was on its route through Persia
toward the Russian possessions on the
Caspian, and early in the present spring
grave apprehensions were aroused as
TO the virulence and rapid diffusion OF
the epidemic. Within few weeks sew.
eral outbreaks have been reported
one at Akyab killing twenty-five per
cent. of the European population in
thirty hours, and new foci Of infection
will doubtless be multiplied. On the
other hand, plague, which has been
gradually extending its ravages for
some years past, had, even before the
commencement of actual hostilities,
spread to the regions north of Bagdad
with alarming speed. Under these
circumstances the war now in progress
not only threatens disaster to the com.
batants themselves, but menaces all
Europe with a visitation of pestiences
which no precautions may be able TO
avert.
The part played by disease in previ-
Gus conflicts between Russia and Tur-
key has been SO terrible that these
premonitions cannot fail to be watched
with extreme concern on both sides.
In the campaigns of 1928 and 1929,
which resulted in the treaty of Adrian
ople, the victorious Russian army was
almost literally destroyed by the plague
which broke out in the army Of Mar
shal Diebitsch soon after it entered the
principalities. In the month of Octo-
Der, 1928, alone, 10000 Russian sick
were received in the Roumanian hos
pitals, without counting the field hos
pitals and in February, 1929, one out
of every four Russian soldiers who
were taken sick died. During the ten
months from May, 1928, to February,
1929, there were no less than 2l0, l0S
men borne on the Russian sick list, so
that on Count Won Moltke's estimate
of the whole Russian force non-com-
batants included, at 100000 men, every
man had, on an average, been twice in
the hospital, and Count Won Moltke
estimates that this first campaign cost
the Russians nearly one-half of their
actual effective force. During the sec
ond campaign of 1929 the same high
authority reckons the loss inflicted by
disease on the Russians at $4,000 men.
The Sultan and the foreign ENJOYS at
Constantinople were kept in complete
ignorance of the fearful state of the
hostile army ; and as their own was
ravaged, though much less terribly,
by the same influences, the Turks actu-
ally made a humiliating peace with
Diebitsch when he had no less than
10000 effective bayonets at the fort
of the Balkans, and, had the truth been
known, might have been compelled TO
surrender at discretion. Not more
than $4,000 Russian combatants return
ed from the crossing of the Balkans
and recrossed the Pruth. These are
evil memories under the shadow of
which this new war bcgins.-Ne'o York
World.