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had to be readjusted to suit the changed circumstances. Admiral Togo secured command of the sea to a sufficient degree to permit transports to move in safety and pour troops into Korea, and he cleared the way for the two cruisers, which were then on their way from Genoa to Japan.

It has been concluded in some quarters that the success of the torpedo on February 8th, and on later occasions, has proved that Japan could have won her success if she had had no battleships or armored cruisers, and had depended entirely upon torpedo craft. It is a fact that so far as we know the guns of the Japanese fleet have not permanently disabled a single Russian man-of-war, while from the effect of torpedo or submarine mine, one battleship has been sunk with terrible loss of life, including Admiral Makaroff, the world-famous pioneer in torpedo warfare, who succeeded Admiral Stark; three battleships, the Tsarevitch, Retvisan and Pobieda have been disabled for the whole course of the war, so far as can be seen for the present; and one cruiser, the Boyarin, has been sunk by Russian mines, in addition to the torpedo transport, the Yenisie, and one or two torpedo craft. This is a list of casualties credited to high explosives used in torpedo or submarine mine, which may cause observers to question whether naval war cannot be successfully waged without the assistance of those heavy ships which are now costing from one to one and a half millions sterling each, or even more. Those who have followed the course of the war, and have carefully read Admiral Togo's despatches, will recognize that great as has been the actual and moral effect of the torpedo, the efficiency of this weapon has depended upon the method of its employment. The Japanese Admiral always sent in his torpedo craft at night, with a body of

the port as a

cruisers to hang off screen, and, on most occasions, some heavy ships of the fleet have been in the offing. It was the menace of the battleships and armored cruisers and their guns which kept the Port Arthur squadron imprisoned in the harbor. The effect of this "fleet in being" was that Admiral Stark could not venture to sea, and it was similarly the menaces of the heavy ships on April 13th which drove the Petropavlovsk and the Pobieda upon the mines which the Japanese had previously laid in the fairway of the channel into Port Arthur. Throughout the past four months it has been the realization of the power concentrated in the battleships and the big cruisers under the command of Admiral Togo and Admiral Kamimura which has disarmed the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, and prevented the ships at Vladivostok from taking the offensive. At the same time, Japanese tactics have confirmed the conclusion that battleships and cruisers cannot remain in an open roadstead with immunity, that the Power which hopes to employ battleships when it has not docks in which they can be repaired or mechanicians who can carry out the repairs, is paving the way to disaster. Big ships must either be secure at night behind adequate defences or at least they must keep on the move at sea, when they have little to fear from torpedo-boats and destroyers.

The Japanese have revealed to the world the wide range of usefulness of even the smallest torpedo-boats. Possessing only nineteen torpedo-boat destroyers, good sea-worthy craft, they decided to form flotillas of boats of quite small size, and these have been used with success off Port Arthur in the depth of winter, 500 miles or more from a permanent base. The secret of this lies in the early seizure of a harbor in the Elliot Islands, which has served as a base for all the torpedo

craft, and in the presence there of "mother ships." Ten years ago the Japanese realized the need of "mother ships" for torpedo craft. They acquired in 1894 an old British merchant vessel, now known as the Toyohaschi, a ship of 4,120 tons, which they armed with two 4.7in. quick-firing guns and smaller weapons, and equipped with all necessary machinery and tools for the repair of torpedo craft, while at the same time providing reserves of every variety of stores. As soon as the war began, they similarly transformed another merchant ship, and have consequently had at their advance naval base these two most useful vessels, in addition to a couple of hospital ships, the Hakuai Maru and the Kurl, each built to take 292 patients. They also provided the fleet with a steamer built for picking up and cutting submarine cables. All these ships, and a number of supply ships and colliers, have been concentrated at Admiral Togo's secret base. The result is that the Admiral has been as well provided with facilities for repair, for dealing with cables, for coaling ships, for the care and removal of wounded to shore hospitals, as foresight and a slender purse could provide.

The whole secret of the Japanese success may be said to lie in the fact that the problem of the present war was studied in detail, instruments acquired fitted for the end in view, and, lastly, in the war readiness of the fleet. Directly the Government of Japan had decided to throw down the gage, the fleet, held on the slenderest leash, was ready to spring forward and deal that The Fortnightly Review.

first crushing blow which altered the whole aspect of the campaign afloat. The events of the past three months have emphasized the fact that a fleet is not maintained in order to show the flag on foreign coasts, to provide local defence to distant coast towns, or to cruise ship by ship in silly isolation, but must be concentrated to meet the strategic needs of any probable war.

By the masterly strokes which Admiral Togo dealt at Russian naval power, and by the subsequent blocking of the Port Arthur channel, he freed the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili to the transports carrying the Japanese armies. He did more even than this. By "sealing" up Port Arthur, he robbed Russia of a base which the muchtalked-of reinforcements from the Baltic hoped to gain with the assistance of the squadron within, disabled though it were, and he gave a singularly vivid illustration of the truth that the mere possession of ships with crews inadequate in numbers and unskilled in warlike duties, is not equivalent to naval strength. Behind the fleet, even if well-manned, and under a leader of courage, great strategical and tactical ability and personal magnetism, must be a well thought-out organization, and dockyards well equipped and with ample supplies of labor for repairs. Japan has supplied the world with object-lessons in warfare and the influence of the command of the sea, but above all, she has illustrated the fruits of intelligent, careful organization and the meaning of being ready for war. She has humbled a Power against whom even Napoleon could not prevail.

Excubitor.

GREEN TEA AND POLITICS IN MOROCCO.

He was a grave, personable Moor of middle age, and full of the dignity that would seem to be the birthright of his race. His official position gave him a certain knowledge of political developments without affecting his serene outlook upon life. Whether he sat outside the Kasbah1 of his native town and administered the law according to his lights, or, summoned to the capital, rode so far as the royal palace there to take his part in a council of the Sultan's advisers, or whether, removed for a time from the cares of office, he rested at his ease among his cushions as he was doing now, this Moorish gentleman's placid and unruffled features would lead the Western observer to suppose that he was a very simple person with no sort of interest in affairs. I had occasion to know him, however, for a statesman, after the Moorish fashion, a keen if resigned observer of the tragi-comedy of his country's politics, and a pious man withal who had visited Mecca in the month that is called Shawall, and had cast stones on the hill of Arafat as the custom is among true believers. Some years had passed since a letter, written by a high official in the intricate Arabic character, had opened the portals of his house to me and had let loose, for my benefit, thoughts not lightly to be expressed. We sat side by side on the divan in the patio, and we drank green tea flavored with mint from tiny glasses that were floridly embossed in gilt. Beyond the patio there was a glimpse of garden ablaze with color, and we could hear 1 The official building and residence of the Kaid or Basha.

2 The Koran.

3 The late Sir John Drummond Hay. Ministers of foreign countries are called Bashadors by the Moors, the word being probably their corrupt form of our "ambassador." Na

slaves singing by the great Persian water-wheel and the cooing of doves from the shaded heart of trees that screened a granary.

"Since Mulai el Hasan died," said the Hadj quietly, "since Mulai el Hasan went to his pavilion in Paradise, in an orchard of never-failing fruit through which a river flows as is explained in the Most Perspicuous Book,2 troubles have swept over this land, even as the locust comes up before the west wind has risen to blow him out to sea."

He mused awhile as though the music of the garden pleased him, as indeed it must have pleased any man not altogether soulless.

"Before the time of my Lord Hasan," he went on, "there had been troubles enough. I can remember the war with Spain, though I was but a boy. My father was among those who fell at Ouad Ras on the way to Tanjah of the Nazarenes. But then your country would not permit these Spanish dogs to steal our land, and even lent the money to satisfy and keep them away. This was a kindly deed, and Mulai Mohammed, our Victorious Master, opened his heart to your Bashador3 and shared with him his innermost councils. And I can remember that great Bashador of yours when he came to this city and was received in the square by the Aguidal Gardens. Our Master the Sultan came before him on a white horse," to speak gracious words under the green umbrella that shades the ruling house.

tive Ministers are called Viziers, the Prime Minister being the Grand Vizier.

4 When a Sultan appears in public on a white horse it is for a sign that he is pleased; a black horse on the other hand is ominous to them that understand.

"A strong man was the Sultan, and he listened carefully to all your Bashador said, still knowing in his heart that this country is not as the land of the Nazarenes, and could not be made like it in haste. His Viziers feared change, the Ulema' opposed it when they could, and nothing could be done rapidly after the fashion of the West. "Then Lord Mohammed, King of the Age and Prince of True Believers, died, and my Lord el Hasan, who was then in the south, reigned in his stead. And the troubles that now cover the land began to grow and spread."

He sipped his tea with grave pleasure. Two female slaves were peering at the infidel through the branches of a lemon tree, but when their master dropped his voice the heads disappeared suddenly as though his words had kept them in place. In the depths of the garden the nightingale woke and trilled softly. We listened awhile to hear the notes "ring like a golden jewel down a golden stair."

"My Lord el Hasan," continued the Hadj, "was ever on horseback; with him the powder was always speaking. First Fez rejected him, and he carried fire and a sword to that rebellious city. Then Er-Rif refused to pay tribute and he enforced it-Allah make his kingdom eternal! Then this ungrateful city rebelled against his rule, and the army came south and fed the spikes of the city gate with the heads of the Unfaithful. Before he had rested, Fez was insolent once again, and on the road north our Master, the Ever Victorious, was (so to say, as the irreligious see it) defeated by the Illegitimate Men who are from Ghaita, and his House was carried away. There were more campaigns in the north and in the south, and the Shareefian army ate

Literally Learned Ones, an irregular theological cabinet, the number of whose members is known to no man, but the weight of whose decisions is felt throughout Morocco.

up the land so that there was a famine more fatal than war. After that came more fighting, and again more fighting. My Lord sought soldiers from your people and from the French, and he went south to the Sus and smote the rebellious Kaids from Tarudant to Iligh. So it fell out that my Lord was never at peace with his servants, and the country went on as before, with fighting in the north and the south and the east and the west. The ships of the Infidel nations came again and again to the Bay of Tanjah to see if the Prince of the Faithful were indeed dead, as rumor so often stated. But he was strong, my Lord el Hasan, and not easy to kill. Then the French took the oases of Tuat, which belong to the country just so surely as does this our Marrakesh, and have ever been a place of resting for the camels like Tindouf in the Sus. But our Master recovered his lordship with his health, and the French went back from our land. After that my Lord el Hasan went to Tafilat over the Atlas, never sparing himself. And when he returned, weary and very sick, at the head of an army that lacked even food and clothing, the Spaniards were at the gates of Er-Rif once more, and the tribes were out like a fire of thorns over the northern roads. But because he was worn out and would not rest, and also because the span allotted him by Destiny was fulfilled, my Lord Hasan died near Tadla; and Ba Ahmad, his chief Vizier, hid his death from the soldiers until his son Abd-el-Aziz was proclaimed."

There was a pause here, as though my host were overwhelmed with reflections and found some difficulty in giving sequence to his narrative.

"Our present Lord was young," he 6 A common term of reproach used in speaking of Rebels.

7 Hareem.

continued at last,

thoughtfully; "he was a very young man, and so Ba Ahmad spoke for him, and acted for him, and threw into prison all who might have stood before his face. Also, as was natural, he piled up great stores of gold and took to his hareem all the women he desired. He oppressed the poor and the rich so that all men cursed him,-privately. But for all that Abu Ahmad was a wise man and very strong. He saw the might of the French in the east and of the Bashadors who pollute Tanjah in the north; he remembered the warships that came to the waters in the west, and he knew that the men of these ships want land, and land, and yet more land, until they have the earth even as they have the sea. Against all the wise men of the west who dwell in Tanjah the Vizier fought in the name of the Exalted of God, so that no one of them could settle on this land to take it for himself and break into the bowels of the earth, seeking for gold after the manner of the Nazarenes. To be sure, in Wazzan and far in the eastern country the French grew in strength and in influence, for they gave protection, robbing the Sultan of his subjects. But they took little land, they sent few to Court, and the country was ours until the Vizier had fulfilled his destiny and died. Allah pardon him, for he was a man, and ruled this country, like his father before him, with a hand of very steel." "But," I objected, "you have said while he lived no man's life or treasure was safe, that he extorted money from all, that he ground the faces of the rich and the poor, and that when he died the Marrahshis said 'A dog is dead.' How then can you find words to praise him?"

"The people call out," explained the Hadj calmly; "they complain, but they obey. In the Maghreb it is for the people to be ruled as it is for the rulers to govern. Shall the hammers cease

to strike because the anvil cries out? Truly the prisons of my Lord Abd-elAziz were full while Ba Ahmad ruled, but all who remained outside obeyed the law. No man can avoid his fate. Even my Lord el Hasan, a fighter all the days of his life, loved peace and hated war; but his destiny was appointed with his birth, and he, the peaceful one, drove men yoked neck and neck to fight for him, even a whole tribe of the rebellious as these eyes have seen. But while Abu Ahmad ruled from Marrakesh the land had peace, the roads were safe as in the days of Mulai Ismail,-may God have pardoned him! The expeditions were but few: the land knew quiet seasons of sowing and reaping; and it is better for a country like ours that many should suffer than that none should be at rest."

It

I remained silent, conscious that he and I could not hope to see life through the same medium. It was as though he looked at his garden through a red glass and I through a blue one. may be that neither of us saw the real truth of the problem underlying what we are pleased to call the Moorish Question.

"When the days of the Grand Vizier were fulfilled," the Hadj continued gravely, "his enemies came into power. His brother the Chamberlain and his brother the War Minister died suddenly. No wise man sought too particularly to know the cause of their death. Christians came to the Court elevated by Allah and said to my Lord Abd-elAziz, 'Be as the Sultans of the West.' And they brought him their abominations, the wheeled things that fall if left alone, but support a man who mounts them, as I suppose, in the name of Shaitan, the picture-boxes that multiply images of True Believers and are wisely forbidden by the Far-Seeing Book, carriages drawn by invisible djinns who scream and struggle but

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