NAVAL LESSONS FROM THE WAR.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8167, 23 April 1895, Page 4

NAVAL LESSONS FROM THE WAR.

Appended is abbreviation of a letter to The Times (February 16) ovor the signature "Navalis," apropos of the action in the Gulf of Pechili : " Large gun? were not disabled through being dented or perforated by small projectiles of high velocity. The unarraored ends of the two Chinese battleships remained intacb after \Talu. Torpedooi were ineffective in an open sea action. Well-handled torpedo boats were effective against a ileet debarred fiora manoeuvring. A Ootilla of fourteen torpedo boats in the open sea was annihilated, with ono exception, by a small number of moderato speed cruisers. The burst of one well placed 12in shell disabled the shielded big gun of a protected cruiser, and drove her out of action. The engines of tho fiurviviug ships of either fleet) were intact. Fighting tops were usolos3 at the average rango of tho action as fought. Kudder3 were not damaged. Wood-work in any form was disastrous, both from fires and splinters. Surplus ammunition above the hoist is a terrible elemeut of danger." The effect which the rising of a new Great Power in the Eastern seas may have upon tho several races under our sway in India and Burmah is ongoing careful discussion. Both the Spectator and the Economist have applied themselves to the consideration of the subject. Great Britain has much at stake in the East, and will have moro when Canada and Australia, with their Imperial telegraphic cable and steamship lines, annex the Pacific. The Westminster Gazette has asked the question once or twice, and the (Spectator writes : "We can conceive of no prize which the Mikado could obtain equa 1 to the Philippine Isle — a second Japan in area and potential wealth — nor any dependency that would suit his polity as well as Java." The moral is that we should got China, Spain, or Holland to let us have some place in the Eastern seas — " the good harbor now belonging to the Dutch, called the Great Nanunas, in Western Sorneo," for choice — to make a second Portsmouth of. Pursuing the subject, the Westminster Gazette recognises to the full importance — insisted upon by the Economist — of not letting the Japanese get ib into their heads that Europe is afraid of them. Japan, ib is true, may not, after the war is over, go in for "a spirited foreign policy"; but all the probabilities are the other way. This being go, ib behoves us to be prepared for eventualities. The general public and the goneral newspapers would do well to give greater attention to the progress of events in Further Asia, and see the truth underying Piioce Henri D'Orlean's phrase : "Be Asiatic ; there lies the future." There are political developments impending in the Far East which are much moro important than many questions that bulk largely just now in tho newspapers aud political clubs, and if things are to be settled without the peace of the world being disturbed 1 ' the man in the streeb " niusb bogin to take an interest in them.

Sir Augustus Harris slates that his Drory Line pantomimes often cost him, including salaries, something well over L 50.000 a year. Haying been educated at Paris and Hamburg, ho was for a short time foreign correspondent in a city merchant's oilico. His first appoaranoe on the aUge »u »t Manchester, in the part tf W%\w\w in Mwtotb 1