JAPAN'S ACT OF GRACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1916, Page 7

JAPAN'S ACT OF GRACE.

RETURN OF RUSSIA'S CRUISERS. The return to Russia of three of the warships captured by the Japanese in 1904 and 1905 has quite a romantic flavor. ' The Saganii was the battleship iPeresviet, sunk at Port Arthur. The Tango was the battleship Poltava, also sunk at Pork Arthur, and the Soya was tlie protected cruiser Varyag. The Peresviet and the Pobyeda, sister ships built at 'Petrograd, the former in 1898 and the later in 1900, have a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons. They figure in the Japanese lists as nineteen-knq,t ships, armed with four 10-in. and ten fi-in. guns. The Pobyeda, re-named the Suwo, has not been returned to Russia. The Tango displaces 11,000 tons, steamed eighteen knots at her trials, and is aimed with four 12-in. and twelvo fi-in. guns. These are useful ships of their age and class, because the Japanese reconstructed them. The Varyag, a.protected cruiser of 0500 tons, has been used as a training ship. The Varyag, it may he recalled, was in Chemulpo harbor on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, and a .'strong Japanese squadron appeared there on February 8, 1904, taking up a position whence it could attack the Russian without interfering with neutral shipping. A sharp protest from H.M.B. Talbot caused the Japanese commander to abandon any idea he may have had of attacking the Varyag in harbor, but next day the Russian was directed to leave the port. This the. Varyag did, but outside she encountered a second powerful Japanese squadron and after a brief running fight she put back to port and was apparently blown up by her own captain. At a later stage she was refloated by the Japanese and repaired. The action, it is worth recalling, was fought in Korean territorial waters. As for the Rus sian ships in Povt Arthur, these took part in one general engagement and in various smaller affairs, and were subsequently bottled up in harbor. When the Japanese land forces pressed their attack so close that the ships in the harbor came under the fire of the siege guns, the Russians simply,sank the vessels. After the fall of Port Arthur the ships were refloated and repaired, and were incorporated in the Japanese navy.