THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7796, 12 April 1905, Page 2

THE WAR.

THE FLEET AT ANCHOR. | LAItCIE REIN FORCICM ISN'I'S. AUANBONINU THE WOUNDED. LONDON, April 10. Thj llntchum, a British s'eaiuer, sighted the HiilUc Fleet amiior<*l to-tiny twenty miles north-cast of l'uloment;, 150 miles froiu Sing«purc. Admiral GnsksbNt cornmundod tlic Russian pabsint; Singapore oil Sutuixluy. Four worships, upimiently Japanes ', were »i}jhtod at C'upe St. Jnuies ou Friday. One hundred u>kl lifty olllccrs, including 10 from) the Hluek Hea Fleet, have joined Admiral l(ooh<destveiisky sinue he stui'tod, besides iMJOO mcnt Dutch advices slate that the ltussiun Fleet near Muntok, aitd i» expected at ilatavia to-day. China has informed the Hussiuns that. klmj will not allow the threatening construction of a light railway through Mongolia. Fifteen thousand wounded Bussians weio abundonod on the Mukdon bat(jlelieW and died. Xbirt>>two bo>ttalions have been added to the Vladivostok Squadron. DISPOSITIOK OF TROOPS.

IMPORTANT WAUSHIPS MISSING WHERE ARE THEY ? LONDON, April 10. G'enerul Linevitch is reinforcing Vladivostok,, and has stationed a strong detachment ot Yaotisaotse, on the Mongolian frontier, ut Sipiagkai on the railway, at Shilipsi vn the Mandarin Iload, and at Tokadu and ShuWhenze, south of Kir,in. The outposts confront each other at several points within u radius of 21 miles of Changtu. Reuter's Singapore correspondent says that the most important worships, including the Knlaz, Suvuh roft, Alexaiider 11., Borodino, Orel, with a 'complement of cruisers, destroyers, and tenders, were not amongst the vessels passing Singapore, nmd their whereabouts is totoJly unknown. The veesels passing Singapore were tho Sossni, ValiM, Oleg. and the cruisers Admiral Maklrinoff, Bimitri, Bonskoi, Aurora, Izumrud, Jomchug, Almnz, ltuss, Anadyr, Bismarck, Feurst, Kaiserln, Maria Theresa, Augusta Victoria, Kaiser Fredeiick, Boi\. and seven destroyers, under tho naval flag. Under Uio commercial flag were the volunteer fleet steamers Voroncz, Zoroslav» Kiefl, Tambor, Vtedlnrir, Otel, (a hospital ship) ; the Russian Navijpation Company's Jupiter, Meteor, Mercury; tho East Asiatic Company's Korea, Kital, and tho North Baltic Company's KnlaK, OortscKakoil; one salvage siiijj. and sixtocn colliers.

YESSELS CONFISCATED, (Received April 11, 9,11 p.m.) LONDON, April 11. Tho Susebo Prize Court rejected the Hosely and Lethingion api>cals, und the vessels were confiscated. •• HANGED IS SPIES. Safeguarding Philippine • NEUTRALITY, (Received April 11, 10.5y p.m.) LONDON, April 11. Fi\% Japanese officers were arrested at Vladivostok and haivgod as spies.. Photos of the entrenchments uinf surrounding villages were found in their possession, It is believed in Tokio that Admiral Hozbdeatveosky will soon proceed to the rendezvous in the Pacific. United States .warships arc patrolling the Sulu Archipelago und Palawan Island, as a safeguard of tho neutrality of the Philippines. | Japanese scouts first sighted tho Baltic Fleet,

ADMIRAL ROZHOESTVEXSKY. INTERESTING EARLY ROMANCE. Now that so much interest is centered around Admiral Rozhdcstvensky, the Russian Admiral in charge of the fleet, it is useful to recall another talo of warlike adventure in which he played a conspicuous part" some tweuty-eeiven years ago, at £fie time of the llusso-Turk-ish war. In with Lieutenant (now Admiral) Kozhdestvcnsky, Captain Baranoll addressed to the Minister of Marine in 1877 an elaborate account of tho brilliant victory these officers claimed to have gained in u fight with a Turkish ironclad. Tho story was to this effect I 'Hie little Vesta, which in i 877 had Just been converted from a trading vessel itv te a vessel of war, was under tho command of Captain llaranoff, with Hozhdostvenaky as first lieutenant. With this small unprotected steamer they, had attacked a large Turkish ironclad named the Fethi lloulund, which, after a desperate strugglo of more than five hours' duration hud at Inst—damaged and in flames—to seek safety in ignominious flight. Tha picturesque report of the light between the Russian pigmy and tho Turkish mail-clad giant dadared that Lieutenant Rozhdestvcnaky brought the action' to un end i>y "firing with his own hand from a mortar placed on the upper deck of the Vesta, a shell which dropped right inlo the chimney of the Turkish ironclad, atid exploding down below, disubied her principal deck gun and caused such a lira that the Turkish vessel became enveloped in smoke, and, moving with 1 evident difficulty, turnud round uud disappeared.-

Wonderful indeed were some of Uio details* given in "Cajituin HanmofT'a official report", which was carried to St. l'ctorsburg by Liioiitemmt RozMost veil sky, specially charged to furnish the authorities with any further particulars that might be desired. "All we now could do," says thereport in onq place, "was to turn our u ln *° " le 11 reciprocate shot for shot," and, in another, "J determined to go straight for the foe and either board her or blow j UT u „ by submarines." Cnptain Baranotl, was, It seems, a great believer !n the ertieacy of rifl<Mire, and, much nnnov- ??. • I ®-' ID K on the deck of the IVttu "ouland' Guides a Turk in „ i,./ a couple of foreigu officers in umiorms, lu> called up three of his test sharpshooters and promised '■ml rewards if they could strike down those particular individual* Ihey accomplished their task wVth' unfail.ng accuracy. Captain llara,,off, on the strength of his repori, was lionised and feted whenever h.- went ' OS| (i ' iu "' v at Selmstopol and Odessa. J ho llussian journals aU wed with one another in Hounding I I his praise. Swords of honour were r! BSen^L t0 hil "• and hc informed a ' ° f tho ,)u "> * NVws - »>U> visited him on board the Vesta. that ! W0() m„i,T glVe " hi,u 0 IHjnsioi, of , o. a • ,ea ''- ,Jle t-'row of 1 St. (.ooifje, and the military runk I "I lieutenant-colonel. Nothing. Hu«inwhile. or next to nothing was done for Lieutenant Ho/.hdcstvensky. The fame oi the Vesta went' o„ increasing, until one morning. the 4th September, 1877, a telegram from Constantinople appeared in tho Time.* eiving the contents of a letter from Elobart I'u.shn to tli« Imovant Herald in which' tho chief of the Turkish navy described as "utterly fictitious the publibhed details of an aUegV.l flabt

th< UowUnd. V (.fctfr,. ' 'Tbo <iw9 '' .""to? 5f?3 r**® h,L . ™* htf Injured the S r 7r~K£ra Si 1 ;,; «* Interviewed •vte Enrtah US ®°' J * *o J Hhi * •here hwd boon nothing ■srJSaS on their side 'c£„, d . lumu. the distance 1 * v< *;t'i* having been 100 gtaal^ Captain llaranofl M . , thought by his icte.vod much more than Ms (S *. u ™ V, honour* and while hl« uproarious i!" satisfaction to Ki l a 'T n M dins ?' Black Sea. According to H/iJu sha ("Sketches front 'llv Hoburt I'ahhn, page 210) ihl, inaiider of tl* Vc* U had tot££2 himself that the Turks silence its to the absolute fauL^S f IP to tk ondsis%jJ BaranofT s officers kept hSI with one another about the iZnnX ous achievements of the the fllack Sea. ftn Ada**} Ho» bart 8 emphatic denial of IteSnMu story, and the jealously of itoSZK subordinates, at last prodwwPtaS feet in St. Petersburg, apMniir *'h<' n the Novoc Vrtuiya '•Her signed by »olf, who had in the meanttoTlt wouW Mem, quarrelled with hii dye# " n which the lieutenant of tha vSuf practically threw his mrfgfa awm £*«<• """t'y dwJared that dj too Vwta bad done wax tbit vhn in» chased by a Turkic inMbS! she ran away," *""* According to the Buatfaa *' of the Vesta " £? ™VS a,SS tsl), Captain BaranoO found COM |f 4 u ' r the peace that •• the voice of d*> traction was being raised, mm him In dark insiniwtions." -*'B3Kiwla opposed to the ways of dafioMK't continues the Russian writer, v.mL* eager for the light of day, the cap, tain of the Vc«ta demanded that if ' entiuiry should be made Into Mi cm duct. After an acrimonious iftna» pondence with the autborltiee, «h* enquiry look nlace, and Cantata Bar. anon was "tfrprivod of his appoint*. , mcnt of Flugel Adjutant and ted from the navy." Hi* " exjdoll 'I had, however, appealed ho pMwfnl* ■ly to Russian patriotic feelbig that it was thought undeairable to vlirft him with too severe a punishment. He even became later on Ooveraor of ' Kovno, with the military nude of ar> ■ tilK j ry colonel, whence be was pro- . tnoted, with the rank of general, first to Archangol and afterwaniv to N'ijni Novgorod. On resigning fhti ' last pobt, in 1867, he was roado * > member of the Senate. ' '

Lieutenant Rozbdestvenaky tne>»whilo remained in tho Hmiu'tiiiy and obtained good protnoUoa, ti(l la due time, as we know, he routed the rank of admiral, and obtained command of the Baltic Fleet, Bft he seems still to retain an adtninl the peculiarity which he dlsptaysed at tho beginning of his career In conacetioa with the Vesta and the FHhi Sou* land—that of being able to ace thing* not visible to the ordinary eye.