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Show THE OTTER INJUSTICE OF IT. Admiral Niebpgstoff was sentenced to death in Bussia for losing his fleet in a conflict with the' Japanese. Japa-nese. The Czar ha commuted his sentence to ten years' confinement in a fortress. The Government of which the Czar is chief has its own naval board. It ha the full charge of building build-ing and manning ships. It built some inferior ships. It manned them with peasants and roustabout men unfamiliar with the sea, unaccustomed to the handling han-dling of ships or guns ; men who by nature and education edu-cation were entirely unfitted for such a place. These were sent out against one of the most perfectly manned and equipped fleets that ever sailed the sea, and of course were overwhelmed. Now, to save Russian honor, the old Admiral in charge is first sentenced to death and that sentence is commuted to what may be called a "life sentence" to a man of his age. The men who superintended the building, armfag and manning of the ships have no punishment. They are the ones that ought to be put in the fortress. Every military man in England, Germany and France and the United States knew, when that fleet went to sea. that it was doomed, that no character of fighting which its Admiral could put up could save it. It was like sending out a half dozen shepherd dogs to find in a jungle a full grown Bengal tiger and to bring him into camp. The wrong perpetrated on the Admiral and those under him is intensified by the punishment of the old man for doing the best he could with the material which he had to deal with, while the men really responsible re-sponsible go free. . |