The Washington times., 1905-07-07
Defeat of Baltic Fleet
And Spirit of Japan
japanese Officer Discusses the Lessons of the
Far East War in Its Naval Aspects.
Praise for Torpedo Boat

LONDON, July IA Japanese officer
VINO served for many months under Ad-
miral Togo, and who has arrived IN
London. tells the following story re-
earding conditions In the Far East:
Our victory in the straits of Korea
was due in a great measure to the men
We have under US. Japan is an island
power. like England, but she has even
more men than you have trained to the
sea- We have not SO many steamers
and our steamers are not so large;
therefore our seafaring population Is ac-
customad to sailing an enormous num-
Der Of small craft, and SO each man
learns to act for himself We can take
man from his fishing village, and in
sax weeks he is a good sailor.
Example of British Navy.
"Of course. we owe a great deal to
the example of the British navy. Our
drill, our tactics. our strategy are all
British. But In many ways our training
Is more complete.
For example. we teach a man to
stoke with shovel and stones on shore
before we put him on board a ship, and
that Is why our stokers are so good
But all our men are good. They like
their work. and they never complain
whatever the hardships may be-and we
suffered a great deal from cold and ex-
posure in those months before Jort Ar
thus and they. never drink. The for
elgn sailors who come to Nagasaki
spend their time on shore in drinking
places. and they get drunk and fight
among themselves. but our men never
get drunk.
And every man is as proud of the
work he is doing, If he is only shovel
ing coal. as the admiral himself. The
discipline is good. but then we hardly
need discipline except to teach the men
their business
Reasons for Victory.
THAT is why we had such great VIC
tory in the Straits of Tsushima Admiral
Togo is fine sailor; we think of him
just as the English do of Nelson. But it
is easy to win battles with crews like
ours.
a Russian navy Of anys size, not be-
cause the Russians are not brave, but
because they are not really a seafaring
people. They can never be good natural
sailors. and they practice very little
Their fleet at Port Arthur hardly ever
went out, and did very little gun prac-
tice before the war. But In any case
the Russian cannot become an expert
seaman In six weeks, as our men can.
I'm the battle of Tsushima the torpedo
boats apparently did great damage, ano
/ think they always will. Before Port
Arthur It was very different. because OF
the mines and the guns on the forts
But even then the torpedo boats Were
OF value They kept the Russian cruis-
ers IN the harbor and prevented them
making raids, and when the fleet came
out on June 16 the fiotiilas attacked II
and drove it in and struck the Peresyiet
The Russians denied this at the time:
but II was true. The Peresyiet would
have been lost IL she had not been sc
; near port
Torpedo and BayoEet-
/, ut is true that under cover Of a fort
rcss like Port Arthur a feet will not lose
10 heavily by torpedo attack. but in the
open the torpedo will be the determin-
ing factor, like the bayos.et in land tight
ing. Even If 1t does not get home i I
mas great moral effect, and to finish
q battle you must use the torpedo
Were there mines laid In the Korean
straits? That cannot say But l think