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Show EXPLANATION FOR ACT. Russian Embassy in "Rome "Offers ' One. ROME, Oct. 24. The" Russian Embassy Em-bassy here explains the attack of the Russian Pacific squadron ori'th'e Hull fishing fleet by the Btatement that a report re-port had been received at St. Petersburg Peters-burg that tho Japanese would try to Injury Russian ships "with ,exp!psives thrown from fishing-boats. Indeed, the Embassador said," he suspected that the Squadron opened. fire only after an attempt at-tempt had been made to attack some of the ships. No Repbr Received. ' "Unfortunately," said a high-placed Admiral tq the.. Associated Press, "we have not yefreaeiyed the report of Admiral Ad-miral Rojestvensky, upon which we .will act The ,pres3Teports are Incredl-l)ler,to Incredl-l)ler,to me, Iijkiicrw Rojestvensky as a careful, prudent man, and I cannot believe be-lieve that he .would, order his squadron to fire Into a fleet of fishing smacks in such a cold-blbhdcd.'fashlon as reported by the dispatches, There .must be some explanation of which M'.e aretlll in ignorance." ig-norance." ' ; - Advised 'of--Attack.1 "Did you .havje any reaeon-.to believe thatmn attempt might be Tn'ade to attack at-tack the i squadron?: uskedVtho correspondent. cor-respondent. ; -J, '. ."Yes," replied the official. """-We had dome Information which imposed particular par-ticular carcjupon RoJestvensky4." "Could It have been the act of a captain cap-tain ivho perhaps was haunted by fear of an attempt upon the squadron, lost fyla-head 'ijtnd gave the order to fire without authority?" ''No, I do not think so. Onlv tho Admiral Ad-miral could assume such responslblllty especlally as the. dispatches, represent the. squadron as sailing In squadron formation. We all intensely deplore the Incident," -and If ' a mlstako 'nas been made, as appears to be the case, Russia Rus-sia will make every amend possible. You are safe In announcing -that." Deplored by Foreign Office. At the Foreign office the sinking of the British fishing vessels was deplored. de-plored. The authorities manifested the greatest anxiety and expressed the hope that the unfortunate affair will be adjusted sr??311y apd amicably, while they Delicve mat. aoiuo ex'ufanatlon which will throw light on the affair will be forthcoming as soon as Admiral Rojestvensky can communicate with St. Petersburg. The authorities here are unable to believe that his ships fired upon the fishing boats without warning. |