NORTH SEA TRAGEDY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8014, 9 December 1904, Page 7

NORTH SEA TRAGEDY.

(Special Correspondent of the Auckland Star.)

London, October 20th. There has been little in the aspect of the London streets to indicate the tension of the past few days. The hurrying crowds, the ceaseless rumble of the traffic, conveyed no hint of a crisis in the affairs of the nation. Perhaps more people stopped to read the headlines of the evening bills; more newspapers were bought/ and eagerly scanned for latest news—but otherwise the big metropolis went about its business much as usual. What impressed me most about the English people during this eventful week has been their admirable self-

restraint in the face of extraordinary

provocation. The capital awoke on to find itself face to face with a issue—a situation created by events without a parallel in modern times. The llussian Baltic squadron, on its passage through the North Sea on Friday night, had sailed into a fleet of British trawlers, and, without any warning or excuse, poured a fusillade of shot and shell upon the defenceless fisher•craft. There is no need to recapitulate that amazing story of wanton and cowardly aggression. All the world knesv it by Monday night, and " all the world wondered. ' At rirst the whole thing seemed incredible, like an ugly vision ; but as the details kept pouring in and the story of the fishermen stood out in .all its enormity, amazement was speedily swallowed up in indignation. It is doubtful whether the present generation has ever known another outburst of feeling so spontaneous and unanimous. The press of the whole kingdom speak as with one voice is demanding prompt reparation and the punishment of the officers responsible for the outrage. For the moment there are no distinctions of party ; the Liberal leaders are amongst the staunchest supporters of the Government in their demands.

Men talked of nothing else all the week,

but the situation was for the most part jßk discussed calmly, deliberately; thero may have bsen. indeed there was, a strong desire to see this egregious squadron brought sharply to its bearings, bus that feeling was not" expressed in any spirit of braggadocio. S:ill, the strong undercurrent of feeling was very noticeable, and though mo?t people keep their language well under control, there are always

some h'ery spirits who decline to measure their words on such a topic. " The Government ought to allow a trawler fleet to bring them to Portsmouth," said

oue miu-in-the-train ; v Beresford ought to go on board Koddyvenski's ship and knock him overboard," declared another. " If Charlie at Gib and Togo somewhere else isn't enough to settle the lot, I'm done 1" said a lladical fire-cater at a meeting down in Poplar. This sort of talk was the exception, not the rule, but it was very evident ail the same that the general public are more strongly antiEussiao now than they were anti-Boer in the period just preceding the war in South Africa. " England's dead." The funeral at Hull of the victims of j*the North Sea outrage was marked by a flßkieeply significant outburst of public sympathy. It was a scene perhaps without parallel in history. The obsequies of two humble fishermen sent a whole city into mourning, and evoked a display of sympathy and sorrow such as the death of the greatest in the land could scarce produce. It was the spontaneous tribute of a free people to the humble victims of a wrong which touched them, touched the nation's honour, and called for reparation to the individual and to the nation. Xo ceremony of the kind in recent years can be compared with this. The special correspondent of Th>: Times declares that London's great pageants—the Jubilees, Queen Victoria's funeral, the military triumphs, the Coronation—were none of them so impressive as the scene at Hull on Thursday. "I dc not wish to exaggerate," he says, '■ and to some eyes it may have appeared dull and uninteresting. There was no pomp, no colour, no glitter. There was a pathos, a solemnity, and a significance beyond words." Tho population of Hull is 260,000, and every man, woman, and child seemed to bo in the streets. They

lined the route for the whole five miles

ia some places twenty deep, and all business and traffic was entirely suspended. Tnc aoiicija moved slowly to the comet?ry between deuse and silent rows of spectators. The perfect silence which hung over the vast assemblage was infinitely moving. The demeauor of the bystandeis was one of the most remarkable features of the funeral. "I have never seen anything like it," says the eye-witness already quoted, " and it was everywhere the same. The day was lovely, apsrfect autumn afternoon, windless and cloudless ; one could see every face and note every expression. The people not onlj 7 stood in perfect order and silence, but they wore a look of gravity and reverence I have never seen in a crowd before. There were thousands of the roughest vvorkingmen there for hours, but I saw none of them even smoking, I saw no one talking and laughing, but scores of women crying. There was hardly more sign of curiosity than of flippancy in their faces. In points of fact there was nothing for them to see. Tney had come to honour the dead, and never were" dead more truly honoured. To see the place so grave and silent along that extended line produced an indiscrib- • able impression. No man can laugh at the dead, but dead who can move a mulitude in this way are few indeed, and behind the psople of Hull one felt the nation was standing, for these are England's dead. To know those who know Admiral Rejestvensky, one of the most inexplicable features is that it should have occurred in connection with his name. The Admiral has the reputation of being one of the most cool-headed and scientific naval officers in the Russian service—a man of iron nerve, not in the least likely to lose his head in an emergency, and one whose proved personal courage and coo'nss are utterly out of harmony with the perpetration of such a cowardly outrage a3 the bombardment of the Nortb Sea fishing fleet undoubtedly was. That ships under Rojestvensky's command should have got completely out of hand s:ems to be the most inexplicable feature in an inexplicable incident. That under the command of an officer trained in the scientific methods of his profession, and

ne who has had actual experience of <<fl( naval waifare, and personally, a man of ' r proved coolheadedness in tne face of danger, such a disaster should have occurred is no doubt a bitter blow to his ■couotrymen." Born in 1848, Rojestvensky made gunnery bis special study. His first chance of distinguishing himself

came in the Itusso-Turkish war in 1877, when his attack, under Baron off, on the Turkish ironclads in his gunboat Vesta made him a popular hero, and laid the foundation of his career. Promoted to the rank of Commander in 1835, he was appointed Naval Attache to the Russian Embassy in the Old Country, and spent several years in London as a student of our naval affairs. Later he was promoted to the command of the battleship Poresviet, and during the Chino-Japanese war he was Alexieff's second in command of the Russian squadron in the Far East. Promoted to the rank of Boar-Admiral, ho was in 1902 in command of the Russian squadrom at the meeting of the Russian Emperor with the Kaiser at Revel, and his brilliant handling of his ships was recognised by his appointment as aide-de-camp a Iα suite to the Tsar. On the death of Admiral Tyntofl, Rojesivensky succeeded Admiral Avellan as chief of the naval headquarters staff, and in this capacity he was head of the Intelligence Department. Consequently the equipment of the Baltic Fleet, such as it is, was mainly his work.