Weekly Trinity journal., 1877-10-13
THE PLAGUE IN THE EASTERN
WAR.

The anxiety Of Europe concerning the
complication, or the Tu kn Russian cam.
paigu i. likely To be- increased hv the IN
trance into the fed o. battle of Two un
expected hostile forces. n,mjca to both
sides in the conflict. AID threatening,
moreover, to carry devastation INTO neu-
iral .terlitore, Chol1a and plngur,
from their recruiting stations in India
and Ncsopotamia, a.e on the march, and
under the fostering conditions of war it
is impossible to foreteil the limits Of their
Invasion. Last year cholera was on its
route through Persia toward the Rus
sian possessions on the Caspian. and ear
ly in the present -pging gave apprehcn-
siOuS were aroused ~ to the virulenCe
and rapid difi'u-ioy of the epidemic. With
in few weeks several local outbreaks
have been reported. one at Akyab kill
ing twerty five per cent OF the European
popu alton in thity hours, and new foci
ni infection viii doul tlc-s te multiplied.
On the other hnnd, plague, which has
been gradually extending it, rvagc, for
some years past, had, even before the
commercement Of actual ho-tiitics,
sproad to the regions north Of Hngdad
with alarming speed Under these cir
cunstancns the war now IN progress not
only threaten disaster 10 the combatants
Themselves, but mruaces all Europe with
visitation Ui pc>tiiences which 10 pre-
cautions may be nhie 10 avert.
The part pnycd by d-ea~e in preyiou.
conflicts hrtweeu Russia and Tu key has
been so terrible that these premonitious
cannot tail to be watched with extreme
concern on boiA sides IL the campaign,
Of 1873 and 1929, which resulted in the
treaty Of Airanople. The tictotiou, Rus
sisn army was almost literally destroyed
by the pnRue. which broke out IN the
army OF MAJ, ,lal Diebtsch soon after it
entered the principalile-. In the month
Of October, 1928, alone, 10000 RI,-inp
sick Were received IN the Roumanian hos
pitfalls, without counting the fed ho,pi-
,as and in Fsbruary. 1929, one out Of
every four Russian soldiers @ho were ta-
ken sick died. During the ten months
from May 1873, 10 February 1929, there
were no less than 2l0, Jos men horne on
the Russian sick list, so that on Count
Won Moltke's estimate Of the whole Rus
fan force, nor -comb0tants included, at
G,0o0 men, every man had, on an av-
rrage, 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 second campaign Of 1929 the
same high authority rpckons the loss in
fictcd by disease on the Russians at Co.,
coo men. The Sultan and the foreign en-
voys ut Constantinup.e were Kept IN com
plete ignorance OF the fearful state OF the
hostile army and a, their own was raw
ngsd, though much less terribly, by the
same Influences, the Turk actually made
humi iating peace with Diebit,cll when
he had less than 20 coo effective bayuncls
at the foot of the Bpikans, aud, hud the
truth been known, might hnve been com
PEELED to surrender al di-ctrtion Not
more lbau 1900 Rus~inn c"mbataui, re-
turned from the crossing of the Balkans
and rccro-sed the Pruth These are evil
memorie, n der the ,hadow OF which thi,
new war begins Worid.