The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-04-19
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR.

Committee on Constitutional Amend
ments.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR.
Wireless telegraIhy has played an
important part in the current news
of the war in the Far East during
the past several days, both as a means
of transmission of messages and as a
subject of discussion. 1t was by means
of the wireless system of sending mes
sages that Admiral Togo was enabled
to arrange his feint and flank move
ment which eliminated in the blowing
up of the Russian battleship Petropav-
lovsk. He sent an inferior fleet near
in at Port Arthur, while he held his
powerful fighting squadron beyond the
horizon, thirty miles away-in ambush;
an ambush in mid-ocean! The Rus
slams fell into the trap and chased the
smaller Japanese fleet until both had
disappeared from the view of the
watchers at Port Arthur, going sea-
ward. When the commander of the
fleeing Japanese feet concluded that
he had tolled the pursuing Russians
far enough away, he sent a wireless
message to Admiral Togo, in COM
mapd of the heavy fighting fleet, and
| Togo put out at all speed from his
hiding place to intercept the Russians
before they could return to Port Ar
| thur. In this, however, he did not
| succeed. The Russians saw his smoke
| over the horizon and Immediately put
about and ran for safety. If Togo had
been burning a smokeless fuel of steam
making power equal to soft coal he
might have succeeded in cutting off
the Russians. But as it was, his plans
resulted in the destruction of one bat
tleship, the Gripping of another and
the destruction of a torpedo boat, by
means that have been described in
the dispatches. Without wireless
telegraphy the scheme could probably
not have been carried out.
The other incident in which "the
wirless" has played, and is playing,
a part has to do with Admiral Alex
| ieff's declaration that correspondents
employing that method of transmit
ting dispatches will be treated by the
| Russians as spies, and that neutral
vessels equipped with wireless appa-
ratus will be seized and confiscated.
What is a spy? The Brussels Conven-
ton, Article XIX, defines spy as "one
who, acting secretly or under false
pretenses, collects or tries to collect
information in districts occupied by
| fla xnrit6 inf Of
municating it to the opposing force -
Do the correspondents come under that
head? Are they acting secretly or
under false pretense? Everybody
knows what they are there for; not
for the purpose of supplying the enemy
with information, but the world with
news. What they see and hear they
try to give the widest publicity to, not
shouting their news from the house
tops actually but literally disseminat-
ing it from the tops of the masts of the
vessels on which they are quartered.
They are not spies, nor is it likely
that. the neutral powers will permit
them to be treated as spies, however
much Russia may desire it.
Nor can it be understood how Rus
STA is going to sustain Alexieff's point
that for vessel to carry a wireless
telegraph equipment is a breach of neu-
trality warranting seizure and confisca-
ton. A very considerable number of
large merchant ships OF the neutral
powers are equipped with such appa-
ratus, and the probabilities are that
at no distant day, practically every
first-class ship will be so equipped.
Under Alexieff's rule, none of these
vessels would be permitted to sail any
where within the zone of the war
without risking the liability of seizure
and confiscation. Must all modern APP
paratus and appliances be thrown
overheard because Alexieff doesn't APP
prove of them? But there is this fact
to be borne in mind Alexieff is not
at present in a position to send war
ships out to sea in the Far East to
look FOR and capture neutral vessels
with wireless apparatus. His ships
for sometime to come win keep close
under the shelter of friendly coast
defense guns.
| There are now about half a dozen