NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Japanese Government has suddenly increased the severity of its censorship, and the information received this week, though interesting as a hint of its plans, is not in itself sensational. Admiral Makharoff's arrival at Port Arthur has restored the energy of the Russians there, and he constantly takes his fleet outside to tempt the Japanese to an engage- ment within reach of the shore batteries, in which, even if victorious, they might lose ships. Admiral Togo, on the other hand, avoids an engagement on these conditions, and persists in his attempts to " seal up " the harbour. Early on March 27th, for example, he sent eleven destroyers and six torpedo-boats towards the harbour with orders to sink four old steamers in the fairway. His orders were carried out with• wonderful gallantry and enterprise ; but though the steamers were sunk, the fairway was not, as he himself records, completely blocked. A new attempt, therefore, is to be made, old transport steamers having been requisitioned for the purpose, and the question of interest is whether he will succeed in his endeavour, or whether the Russian Admiral will anticipate, and possibly baffle, his plans by forcing an engagement at sea. The Minister of Marine at Tokio expresses the fullest confidence in the result of such an engagement ; but the land operations depend on the Japanese mastery of the Straits, and the cool Japanese Admiral evidently prefers victory in the campaign to any momentary glory to be gained through a great and risky naval battle in which the strong land batteries at Port Arthur would be
able to co-operate with the Russian Fleet. -
