A FLEET UNDER COURT-MARTIAL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3581, 3 January 1883, Page 4

A FLEET UNDER COURT-MARTIAL.

Ocneral Tchevuaycif, who is now making his way across (lie steppes that intervene between Orenhurg- and the Sen of Aral, has a nice little job awaiting him on his arrival at Kazala. All the officers of the Aral lle-e-i, without exception, have heen ordered to he irieel hy court-matial for corrii])tion, negliji-i-'iico in the discharge of their duties, and other misdemeanors. Some of the charges throw a curious light upon Russian life 'in Central Asia. The Aral licet is mainly useful as a means of transporting Orenhurg reliefs and stores from Kazala up the .Syr JJaria to the various river forts and Tashkeiid. The river, however, is very shalleiw, the current is .strung-, and the gruiljoats that tow the barges are so weakly constructed that the naval service in Turkestan is altogether against the taste of officers nrriving from the Baltic and .Black ftca. On the departure of Ihe gunboats from Kazala the officers would, accompany 111 em a few miles from the feert, where j)ostcaris would he in readiness to carry them the rest of the journey on land. Leaving the vessels in charge of the stokers anel natives, the officers would journey on to within a few miles of their destination, where they would go aboard again and gallantly convey their gunboats and transports into port. This mode of discharging 1 naval duties wa.s only recognised last autumn, when the Samarcand, the finest vessel of the fleet, was struck with floating ice during her final vayage, and disappeared to tho bottom of the Syr. On this occasion all the officers were on hoard the vessel at the time of the accident, and it would appear to have been this remarkable phenomenon which first aroused the suspicions of the authorities. Investigations then elicited that tho vessel had been purposely sunk off Fort Perovsky by opening the valves, in order that the tusk of raising the wreck might enable the officers to pass the winter plcsantly at that military station instead of in the midst of the 'howling' i wastes at Kazala.