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Show RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT'S ADMIRABLE FORTITUDE. Several weeks have elapsed since Mukden, the fiercest and longest battle of all time, was fought. The conflict has exhausted both sides, who arc now improving the temporary lull to recuperate and reorganize re-organize their land forces. The attention of the world. is at present ri vetted upon the action of the fleets of the belligerents. The whereabouts of the Russians are fairly well known, but speculation is rife concerning the probable spo where the engagement en-gagement will take places the consequences of which, from a military standpoint, may prove more 'important even than those of the Manchurian campaign. cam-paign. The result will decide the question of the mastery of the sea. Should the Japanese fleet' be defeated decisively, the situation will be changed and become for Japan fraught with danger.' Her armies in Manchuria will be separated from their base, of supplies, her coasts and ports will be exposed ex-posed o the ravages of the llussian navy, and she may find it impossible to forward the reinforcements, reinforce-ments, in men and supplies, essential for the successful suc-cessful prosecution of the war on land. The naval engagement in the Chinese sea may be as disastrous disas-trous to the hopes of the Mikado as the battle of the j Nile; proved to the plans of Bonaparte. On the other hand, a Japanese victory ought to make for peace, a consummation most devoutly to be hoped and prayed for. Whatever the future holds in reserve for both parties a dispassionate observer is forced to record the magnificent calm and fortitude which the llussian llus-sian ' government has displayed during the trying ordeal which their country has been undergoing. At the beginning of this year, the internal situation seemed to be most critical. The demonstration at Iho Winter Palace, tho strikes and riots in several large cities, the unrest in Poland and Finland, the local opposition to recruiting for the army and the assassination of prominent officials seemed to lend a color of truth to the announcements made in several sev-eral quarters that, the hour of the Russian revolution revolu-tion had struck. Interested parties were even spec-t spec-t ulating upon the changes Which this revolution would produce not only upon the administrative, but also upon the essential form of the government of the Czar. The official and non-official press of the world the British and pro-British American part of it especially teemed with forecasts, the gloominess of which was in direct ratio to its Bus-sophobian Bus-sophobian sentiments. There was an uiumimous out- I burst, of exultation from the British press over Russian disaster and Japanese success, all the more remarkable when we recall its hysterical hyper-sensitiveness hyper-sensitiveness to comment during the Boer war. Through it all, the Russian government preserved its equanimity. In calm add dignified terms, it announced an-nounced to the. chancellories of the world that the war would continue, that the internal disorders were not the result of a widespread revolutionary movement, but were due to dissatisfaction with local lo-cal industrial conditions, that they were labor strikes pure and simple, and that in spite of a few incendiary proclamations and political crimes, the masses of tho nation arc '-animated' by a profound love c the Fatherland and are satisfied with their government. Tho disaster of Mukden did not change this attitude. So far as the outside world can now judge, quiet has been restored and, without fu ss or flurry, the government is endeavoring to redeem re-deem the past disasters. This calmness forces upon ,lhe observer the conclusion that Russia is still a mighty power, conscious of her strength, and admirable ad-mirable in adversity, whatever may be her other, shortcomings. |
