THE OREL.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume XII, Issue 17, 23 September 1909, Page 2

THE OREL.

AN episode: of tiie battle TSUSHIMA. The following, which is a passage in the Earl of Konaldshay’s new Poole, “A Wandering Student in the Far East,” is an episode of*the naval battle in the. Straits of Tsushima, when Admiral Togo, the Nelson of (he Japanese, inflicted more than a Trafalgar upon his Russian antagonist. One of the latter's vessels was the Orel. Lord Ronaldshay writes : '•'l’lie last act played by the Orel in the passionate drama of the Sea of Japan has been painted in lurid colours by eye-witnesses of the scene —a scene which port rays in all its ghastly horror the hideous reality of modem war. "A third of the crew lay dead or wounded, the cries ot the mutilated and the dying rose shrill above the storm of shot, and shell until human nerves broke down under the terrible ordeal, and panic and demoralisation reigned supreme. ''Down into this frenzy of human suffering and despair came the callous order from the conning tower—- ‘ Dispose of the wounded.' "The order was ruthlessly obeyed. * The work (in the words oil a Japanese eye-witness) was carried out principally by petty officers, and no mercy was shown. Men were picked up and cast into tile sea like so much useless ballast. . . ‘‘The scenes that preceded the capture of the battleship were indescribable, the sea. being dotted with wounded men struggling to keep alio at.’ •‘This is one ot the things that has not been ''generally realised in England,” «ny more, than Uni fact Of how immensely superior is the Japanese Navy or to-day to the fleet which achieved such memorable successes in the late- war.”-—"Chroni-cle.”