BARON'S DOOM.
ROMANCF OF THE WAR IN J A VAIN. The. new.- that the steamer Cecil ie is to bo u.?ed as a junk at Hakodate. Japan, veor.lls tho exploits of Barcn. von Krie-rlstoiu in the Russo-Japanese war. lie was supposed to have been cent •out by a Gorman paper as a c;rr:ispoiidont with plenty of money, but like most of the war corrc.vpjndents he found that the strict censorshipexercised by the Japanese rendered him practically a prisu'iiio-r. He managed to eludo the attention of the- Japanese military, and charteri cd a j?t earner at Shanghai, which he numrd the Cecilio, and manned with a, met Soy crow. Than, ho set out, it is presumed, to meet tha Baltic flc^t, under Admiral Rozjcstve-nski, who wa<n in the JndoCmiie.>o sear.. In >a short time the Jap.?.ivo?e- authorities wore put in .a furore by the ru incur of tho baron's movements on. the China coiii-st. Nc-'iv at JlcAig Kcng. then at Amc-y, next, at Wcosung — tho Japanese jumpoil to' tlie conclusion, that the baron \7ius an «cc-roc!it:->d agent of the Ru.ii c .ia;i Government, and that the Cecil io, which had been painted grey like a, warship, was a ds snatch boat. Suddenly, when Japanos-s cruisers had bct-n. told off to lw>k out icr her, tho Cccilic ■disappeared. This was in the summer of 1901. The battle of the Sea of Japan was "ought, and the Baltic fleet destroyed ; but it was a nicmith lst?r before- the Cecilio was heard of again. With the baron nbcnrd -she had gono on tiio rockfi off Kbr.Tsakoß:. on. tha west coast of the Island of Saghalien. A Japan ess cruiser wa« despatched to tho ppcfc and found the captain and orc'i" on beard waiting relief. Tho bar-c-n, however, had left, in a frail boat, to try to cross the narrow straits to the mouth of the Amur River, and work his way ui> th« stream ICOD miles or ec to CkMi&ral Linievitch's army. Tli© captain of tho Cecilio tcld the Ja pantos© authorities -that when the Cecilio left Shanghai for th» last timo Von Krieglstein " waited for Rozjestveriffki <\v. the west sido of Formosa instead of in ' the eastern channel between that island and tho Philippine". Tho liiussian fleet consequently dipped by him. Abcut two mouths after this nows readied the. Jap:nffi3 papers in To-kio that Baron, veil Krie-sJstein. had shot hinwdf with a ri&3 while- he was cleaning it in a oamp wliich ho had mada on tho An iu-r Riw. His body was buried by tho native guides.
BARON'S DOOM.
Star (Christchurch), Issue 8953, 12 June 1907, Page 2
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