Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-04-22

Ne husslans, so Tar, have had de-
stroyed or disabled in the far East l 2
warships, the list including 8 battle
ships, armored cruiser, 6 protected
cruisers, 2 torpedo-bost destroyers
and 2 torpedo boats. This Is a very
considerable squadron, the loss of
which must affect the future conduct
of the war very materially. The
battleships were of large size, rang
ing from 10,960 tons to 1910 tons,
and the cruisers were mostly of 6,63o
tons, one being of 1900 tons and
two 5000 tons or over. Some of the
Russian vessels were disabled by gun
fire. but most of them, it will be
noted, were struck by torpedoes, some
by japanese torpedoes and others by
Russian torpedoes. The Russians
have had other accidents, such as
collisions.
There is no denying that the Rus
slams are a masterful people. They
do things in a large way. They are
patient, they are courageous, they are
cynicaIly confident of their capacity
to overcome opposition. And it
must be conceded that they have
cause to be. Checked at times, Russia
has steadily gone forward, always
forward. 1t may have required ten
years for Adam-zod to advance here,
aud fifty for him to advance there
but in the end he has advsnced-
advanced until ports upon the open
sea were his and untold millions of
people tremble in his shadow.
Russia's plan in the present war is
Characteristic. 1t 10 at once simple
and sensible. She has plenty of peas-
ants to kill and she proposes merely
to herd them upon the scene of con-
fiict until she has enough there to
push the Japanese Off the field, how
ever many Of them are killed. There
IS no pretense to strategy-just the
plan to fall dowL on the Japanese
and mash them by sheer weight, as
big, hulking man might fall on a
small boy and crush the life out of
him. But there is the one possible
defect in this plan-the small boy
may prove too agile. And there is
always the chance to trip the giant
the Manchurian railway is a hob
BILE he cannot get rid of. Aud when
all is said, SOC. 600 men cannot be
fed for long over a single weak rail
way line 5000 miles long. There
fore, if the small boy side-steps when
an attempt is first made to fall on
him, the large man may speedily find
himself in a serious position.
SHOOT THEM LIKE SPIES.
The Russian government has given
notice that newspaper correspondents
using wireless telegraphy will be
treated as spies and shot.
This notice was served on the
State Department by Count Cassini,
the Russian ambassador, today, and
it is understood that similar commu-
nications were made to all of the
foreign offices. The communication
says:
"In case in which neutral steam
ers having on board correspondents,
who might communicate war news
to the enemy by means of perfected
apparatus, not being yet foreseen by
existing conventions, would be ar
rested near the coast of Kuantong,
Or in the zone of operations of the
Russian fleet, the correspondents will
be looked on as spies, and the steam
ers furnished with wireless telegra-
ply seized as prizes of war"
This notice opens up an entirely |
new line of treatment of correspon- |
dents. 1t happens that some of the
Leading British newspaper correspon-
tents are making free use of the
wireless telegraph in the transmits
hon of their war news.
THE FLAGSHIP DISASTER.
Details of the disaster to the bat
leship Petropavlovsk lPeter and
'aul), the flagship of Russian Admi-
al Makaroff at Port Arthur, tele-
,raphic announcement of which we
made last week, 60 to show that this
him onb fha 0fhars x,o~o o~vl. l.