ROZHDESTVENSKY'S DIFFICULTIES

Otago Witness, Issue 2673, 7 June 1905, Page 30

ROZHDESTVENSKY'S DIFFICULTIES

From a pea-souage who enjoys rhe beet relations with Rtxssian Court circles (said a Vienna telegram of April 17) the Neve Freie Presse has received an interesting communication concerning tha opinion held there as to the future of Admiral Rozhdestvensky and his fleet. This personage says the fact that no hopes are placed upon General Lineivitch is everywhere known ; but that Ibe court abo does not expect much from Admiral Rozhdestvensky, and fears that he will not mako the *" great ,coup " is ? surprising, but a real fact. Letters which the Admiral has written to his wife, the contents of which are known to initiated circles, report only unfavourably of the fleet. He bitterly complains of the failure of all discipline cm board his iships, and says hiG sailors do everything to provoke incidents. With leopard to the condition of his vessels the Admiral haa nothing but evil to say. The general lack of hospitality shown him, he declares, deprived him of the possibility of making necessary repairs, and, consequently, certain vessels will come into the conflict as cripples In c-ne of his l&tbers Admiral Rozhdestvensky writes as follows : — "Thus are the means and people constituted wibh whom I must face the great fleet of my enemy." The informant of the Neve Freie Presse concludes: — "But not only does Russian society feel no confidence in Admiral Rozlideatveusky's flee<t. A great part of it does not even wi«h him to be victorious, as tbi3 would delay the fulfilment cf their two warmest wishes, the desire for peace and the summoning of a freely-elected representative Assembly.^ It is only the extreme Radicals who would openly confess that thejr actually wish for the defeat of the Russian fleet. A shudder, however, runs through the great majority of the Liberal party when they reflect what tlie internal' Russian situation may become if the last throw of the dice succeeds, and the mastery of the sea is wrung from the Japanese."