Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1901. THE RUSSIAN NAVY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 4 December 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1901. THE RUSSIAN NAVY.

The Novoe Vremya plumes itself that this winter there will be in the Russian ports of the Baltic four first-class battleships, ten coast-defence battleships, seven first-class armoured cruisers, besides a number of small craft. To a certain extent this is true. The four first-class ironclads are the Oslabya, Pobieda, Alexander 11, and Peter Velekii. The first two vessels named, however, are not yet completed ; indeed, the Pobieda has only just been received at Cronstad from the Baltic works; the Alexander II has just returned after five years in th« Mediterranean, and needs extensive repairs; which leaves but the Peter Velekii, launched twenty-nine years ago, as available for immediate service. In the cruiser squadron are included the three new protected cruisers Diana, Palada and Aurora, of which the Palada has only just been received at Cronstadt, whilst the Diana and Aurora are yet in the Neva, leaving bat the three old armored cruisers Minin (1878), General Admiral (1878), and Kniaz Pojarskii (1867). The only really efficient and perfectly ready first-class cruiser in the Baltic is the Pomiat Azova. Of the ten coastdefence battleships only three of just over 4,000 tons are of recent construction, the remaining seven dating from before 1868 Next spring

Russia will be better off, for the Oslabya should be ready, and the Retvisan should be delivered from Cramp's yard in Philadelphia. It is here worthy of remark that a little over a century ago & Russian ship of the line, the Retvisan, was with the English fleet which captured the Dutch fleet in the Texel on August 19, 1799. The combined Ang!o-Russian fleet consisting of ten ships of the line, eight English and two Russian, it will be remembered, captured eight Dutch ships of the line and two frigates.

THE ITALIAN ARMY.

A very radical change has been this year introduced in the training of the Italian army. For many years the German system of drill and training has been followed, but the results obtained have not been considered satisfactory. This is ascribed • partly to the great difference in the temperament of the Italian as compared with the German recruit, and partly to the fact that the former, when he joins the ranks, has not had the same education, nor had his faculties developed in the same manner as the latter. An entirely different method of training and instruction has therefore for some time been experimented with and perfected in the Central School of Musketry in Parma, and the military authorities, having besome satisfied that far better results will be attained

by it, have ordered that all the recruits 1 joining thus year shall be educated therein. The main principle of trie new system-, how officially recognised as the " Parma method," are that the rifle is placed in the hands of the man, and his instruction in shooting is begun immediately after he joins. This instruction is alternated with gymnastic exercises; the change from one to the other being frequent, and the recruit never being kept for any length of time at any one exercise. The results already obtained with the new system, in the case of the recruits who joined last spring, are stated to be eminently encouraging.