She Wrought

[From THE NEW YORK TIMES Correspondent in Penang.]

Penang, Straits Settlements, Oct. 29.--The German cruiser Emden called
here yesterday and departed, leaving death and destruction behind her.
You will doubtless have learned long before this story of her visit,
carried by the slow mails of the Far East, is read in the United
States some account of the Emden's raid, but the cable can hardly
carry a detailed picture of the destruction wrought in a brief hour or
so yesterday in this busy harbor, and it seems worth while to describe
for you how this sudden vision of war burst on Penang.

For those who do not know, the City of Penang lies on the western
coast of the Malay Peninsula, just below the Siamese border. It is the
shipping point of the Federated Malay States, where 65 per cent. of
the world's tin is produced, as well as a great amount of rubber and
copra. With a population of 246,000, it is growing by leaps and bounds
and gives every indication of soon becoming one of the largest ports
in the Far East.

The thing that makes this city a point of importance in the present
war is the fact that it is the last port of call for ships going from
China and Japan to Colombo and Europe. As a result, it has been made
more or less of a naval base by the English Government. Large stores
of Admiralty coal have been collected and all vessels have been
commanded to stop here for orders before crossing the Bay of Bengal.

It was probably with the idea of crippling this base, from which her
pursuers were radiating, that the Emden made her raid here. Had she
found it temporarily undefended she could at one blow seriously have
embarrassed the English cruisers patrolling these waters and at the
same time cause a terrific loss to English commerce by sinking the
many merchantmen at anchor in the harbor.

It was early on Wednesday morning that the Emden, with a dummy fourth
funnel and flying the British ensign, in some inexplicable fashion
sneaked past the French torpedo boat Mosquet, which was on patrol duty
outside, and entered the outer harbor of Penang. Across the channel
leading to the inner harbor lay the Russian cruiser Jemtchug. Inside
were the French torpedo boats Fronde and Pistolet and the torpedo boat
destroyer D'Iberville. The torpedo boats lay beside the long
Government wharf, while the D'Iberville rode at anchor between two
tramp steamers.

At full speed the Emden steamed straight for the Jemtchug an