Put Sebastopol In State Of Siege.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 9, 1912:
Russian Government by Its Action Officially Confirms Stories of Mutiny.
JUDGE ADVOCATE ARRESTED
Naval Minister's Statement Expresses the Czar's Sorrow Over Disloyalty of Subjects.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Sept. 8.— The recent reports of disaffection and mutiny on Russian warships in the Black Sea fleet, as then cabled to The New York Times, receive confirmation in a naval order, issued at St. Petersburg to-day by the Russian Minister of Marine. He proclaims Sebastopol in a state of siege, and orders the arrest of the naval Judge Advocate, and then goes on:
    "The Russian Navy is passing through a historical period. The Emperor's will has summoned it to new life, and the popular representatives have given it their confidence and abundant resources. The Emperor's will now calls it to do its duty toward traitors and to those who have been disloyal. No pardon is possible.
    "The Emperor was pained to learn that the seed of disorder had sprouted up in the navy, so dear to him, but yet the contagion has spread to only a few ships. I am happy to communicate the imperial thanks to those crews which have conscientiously done their duty."
    Reports of unrest among the crews of warships in the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, the seriousness of which is now admitted by the Russian Government, were first heard when news came of a mutiny on the battleship Tsarevitch on May 8 while the vessel was stationed at Helsinfors. It was caused, it was alleged by the dismissal of 200 men for taking a holiday on May 1, but many refused to behave this the real reason for the uprising. Sixty of the crew were placed under arrest.
    Russian Government officials denied that there was serious trouble among the crews, but on Aug. 13 came reports, apparently well founded, that another mutiny had taken place, this time on the battleship Ivan Zlataoust, and that 228 officers and seamen had been arrested.
    The mutineers on the Ivan Zlataoust, it was declared, intended to seize the imperial yacht Standart, on which the Czar and imperial family were being taken from Yalta to Sevastopol en route to Tsarskoe-Selo. The Czar was to have been forced to abdicate or abrogate his autocratic power and proclaim a limited monarchy and a really constitutional regime.
    The drastic action which has now been taken by the Russian Minister of Marine in declaring martial law at Sebastopol recalls the outbreak late in June, 1905, which, beginning among the crew of the Kniaz Potemkine, spread to other ships. The mutiny reached such proportions at that time that mobs of revolutionists seized Odessa, burning buildings and murdering hundreds of the inhabitants. All the officers of the Knaiz Potemkine except five, mostly engineers, were killed on June 28, and the mutineers seized the battleship Georgi Pobredonosetz. The country was greatly agitated for a period and it was only by the most drastic methods that a widespread revolutionary movement was avoided.