Evening star., 1937-02-06
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.


Translated from the Russian by
Eden and Cedar Paul. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
TOR sheerly absorbing narrative,
- the reviewer has not had
many books which surpass
i this, the story of the destruc-
ton of the Russian fleet at Tsushima
by the japanese in the Russo-Japan-
ese War, 1905.
It is written by q man who was
common seaman on one of the Rus
sian vessels; he composed his work
from notes which he made imme-
diately after the battle, while he was
a prisoner in Japan. The notes were
destroyed in riot in the prison camp
but were promptly rewritten.
On the authors release he took
them back to Russia and turned
them over to his brother. while ne
himself entered on revolutionary &C
tivities. It was not until 1913 that
he had time to think of his manu-
script again, and then his brother told
him that he had hidden it only too
he had secreted it away!
In 1928, however, it was acci-
dentally found-in an old beehive on
the brothers farm The author then
hunted up all the surviving sailors OF
the famous battle whom he could
find, checked his materia, with them
and completed his book in 1888. 1t
has already been published in Russia,
where it has had phenomenal sale,
Its Russian popularity, Of course
might be accounted for by the fact
that the story is distinctly colored
by its authors anti-imperialistic polit-
tcal faith; he has blamed the de-
struction of the fleet on the rotten
ness of the Cars government, and
the only men in the naval personnel
to whom he attributed intelligence
or humanity are those who, like him.
self, were revolutionaries in Senti-
ment. But this bias can hardly ac-
count for the fact that the reviewer
read his story forgetfully through one
entire night. On the contrary, the
American reader is apt to feel that
only dull places in the work. The
narrative of the conflict is itself suf-
flciently absorbing.
IT is a story OF doom, beginning
long before the actual battle-be-
ginning, indeed, with the very de-
parture of the fleet, called the "sec-
@nJ so,,o dro,, Froy,, tho H,,1f of Fin
land for Pacific waters, after the first
squadron had been destroyed in the
battle of Port Arthur. There seemed
to have been no doubt at any time in
any ones mind that the ships max
ing the journey were going out to
destruction. OF the 38 of them, they
were, except for four vessels, obsolete;
the gunners could not shoot; the cap
tains could not maneuver; the men
were disaffected, critical of their Off
GERS and at times openly mutinous. A
worse fighting machine, indeed, can
hardly be imagined, as the author
presents 1t, whether one consider the
material or the human elements in
volved.
Yet while he insists that these con-
ditions were due to inperialistic in
efficiency, the more dspassionate
reader is apt to conclude that there
was more to it than any governmental
form. Ineficiency without doubt
brought the squadron to its destruc-
tion, but it will hardly follow, in every
ones mind that inefficiency is the
inescapable corollary of imperialistic
rule The Japanese, who defeated the
Russians, for example, were them
selves ruled by an hereditary En-
peror.
No, this gloomily fascinating narra-
tive unfolds as an exposition Of ma
tional character, rather than Of gov
ernmental 1t stands as a luridly
convincing demonstration of the Mus
covite inability to comprehend the
Western theory of organization ex-
cept from the outside, or to grasp the
purpose of discipline and morale ex-
cept in terms of external forms and
even-uniforms So We have nation
which had supplied itself with the
externals of naval strength-a feet
and navy personnel. But the fleet
was composed of faulty designed YES
sells, badly equipped. And the person.
mel, from the admiral down, knew
nothing of the operation of modern
navy.
They could not hit their targets-so
they designed targets which would
collapse at the mere wind of a shell,
and thus allow them to register hits
on paper. That satisfied them. They
could not keep their ships in line as
they steamed to battle, so they fell
back on cursing their subordinates.
Again that satisfied them. The en-
listed men, aware that their officers
were ignorant, cynically limited them
selves to the performance of conspicu-
GUS trifles and Knocked their superiors
in private. This was the condition
in 38 war vessels, manned by 1900
men, on journey half around the
world, as this author sets it down.
THE first part of his book describes
= that journey, progress so monu-
mentally forlorn that it challenges
the mind to find its equal in history
The second part describes the actual
sea fight, as it was experienced in a
number of the vessels. As has been
said, the author gathered his notes
for this narrative while he was in a
japanese prison camp. Men from
many ships were there with him, so
that IL WAS possible for him to get re-
ports on the action according to many
viewpoints.
It is a tale of one thing, however,
from beginning to end, from the lu-
dinroiis shooting of the harmless Eng.