THE RUSSIAN RAIDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8102, 30 August 1904, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN RAIDERS.

VESSEL WITH NEW ZEALAND CARGO HELD UP. , I -

Th© British India steamer* Waipara commanded hy Captain J. R. Bose. Arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on July 2-5, and was to sail next day for the Australian colonies. She wag the firat v€6sel h-eld up by the Russian volunteer fleet cruisers in the Red Sea. It appears the vessel was a day's journey from Aden, and about twenty miles north of the- island of Jebel Zukur. in the lied Sea,.on Jidy 15, when at .7.15 a.m. a vess-el flying the Russian flag cam© up from behind and signailed the Waipara to stop. Captain Ross :*ra-s unaware of the activity of tho Russian merchant cruisers, but Blowed down the engines in due course. The Russian vessel which turned out to. bo the volunteer .fleet steamer Saint Petersburg, fired a blank shot to emphasise her request, and when the vessel had stopped, two Russian officers in uniform, with 3words, ©tc, on, came aboard at 8 a.m. They were polite in manner, and one officer spoke English fluently. They asked the captain for the papers, and when they had examined these, they were not •satisfied that there were sufficient papers to show the contents of all the packages. Captain Rose willingly went with theni on board the Saint Petersburg afc their request with the «hip'« papers. It appears that the captain managed to use some convincing arguments and by an act of diplomacy managed to satisfy the Russians, and returned to his ship at 9.15 a.m. They, however, instructed the captain to inform the Resident afc Ad^n that the cruisers would examine all ships coming outwards, and that it would be well if these instructed to have complete ssts of papers giving all details of cargo on toford. Captain Eosa was also informed that tho P. and O. Malacca had been seized th© previous day. The Waipara resumed the voyage after about two and a half hours' delay, and sighted the other cruiser Smolensk jusfc rounding the point of an island in 'the vicinity, showing that the two were hunting together. The Waipara. has a large amount of cargo for Brisbane and New Zealand;'- including a, large quantity of gunpowder. She'also carried 7000 packages of general merchandise, explosives, detonators, gunpowder, a motor:car consigned to Messrs Boustead Bros., 2250 barrels of cement for'harbour works, and 500 barrels cement vf or Government stores #in . Ceylon.