Omaha daily bee., 1898-03-27
lHEI LUUk FUk WAX
Englishmen Believe United States and
Spain Will Fight.
REGARD H0STiLiTlES AS UNAVOIDABLE
Sympathies Of the English Nation Are
with Uncle Sam.
HORRlflED At ATROCITIES OF SPAIN
Think There is Ample frovocation for
Intervention.
i0RRlFlED At ATROCITIES OF SPAIN
aAINE DISASTER REGARDED SUSPICIOUS
England's Hands Are Tied by Compli-
cations in the Far East, where
the situation is Very
Grave.

downright, 1ses by Press Publishing Company
LONDON. March 26.-(New York World
Cabegram-Special Telegram.)-The whole
British press and public opinion has now
come to regard hostilties between the United
States and Spain unavoidable. They have
beer reluctantly driven to that view, al
though the war feeling in the United States
is pereistently represented in the English
press as a mere imaginative creation Of sem
sational Journalism.
The imminence Of war Is regarded by the
average Englishman with mixed feelings On
tho one hand the unspeikable enormities OF
Spanish rule in Cuba are felt to afford am
pie provocation for American intervention,
apart altogether from the highly suspicious
catastrophe to the Maine but on the other
( hand Englishmen would prefer to think the
United States had its hands perfectly free
in view Of the not improbable contingency
that England may soon find itself engaged
In life and death struggle with Russia
and France in the far east and an actual
alliance between the Americans and the
English may be deemed impracticable by
English politicians But they are quite
alive to the moral effect upon any foe with
whom their country may be in conflict, that
in the last resort America might throw its
sword into the scale for England.
Not the least remarkable sign Of the times
in this regard is the friendly tone now
adopted by the conservative papers, whose
references to the United States were formerly
the reverse of natterng. Thus the st.
James Gazette shis evening says:
"The United States has perfect right to
call Suain her 10 restore order
stand aside Hitherto they have behaved
with considerable self-restraint, even if we
suppose they have held back partly by want
OF an armed force and partly by reluctance
to make themselves responsible for the
Creole colored population in Cuba. They
have shown good sense, infinitely more re-
spectacle than the alternate sloth and brutal
violence of the Spaniards. Another question
ono doubts is whether peace will ever come
there till the island has been flooded by
emg1ants from the southern states, whose
revolvers will mako short work Of the as
pring Cuban patriot But Spain failed and
must take the consequences"
ASTOR is FRIENDLY.
William Astors Pail Mall adopts now a
very similar tone, saying: "The report on
the loss Of the Maine promises to be model
OF what such documents should be. The
business of the board of inquiry was not to
impute motives nor find excuses, but to set
forth the facts as they lenrned them. They
have done so and the conclusion is that the
vessel was destroyed by the external explo-
sion of a submarine mine. Upon Senor Sa-
gasta will be laid the responsibility Of de-
Gliding between honorable amends, not only
for the destruction OF a vessel belonging to
friendly power, but also for the criminal
misgovernment of Cuba and the war. We
of this country may appreciate the Difficult
ties Of the Spanish premier in having to
reckon with the impracticable pride Of his
countrymen, but our sympathies are over
whelmingly with the nation that Is standing
up for the cause OF freedom and Justice"
Tho conclusion that the Maine was de-
stroyed by a floating mine accords with the
view of the manager of Armstrong's Els
wick ship yards, expressed the day after
the catastrophe. Expert views on this point
are still being published and today naval
writer OF admitted knowledge and experience
says: Assuming that the whole disaster
was traceable in the first instance to an ex
ternal explosion, we can hardly look to al
automobile torpedo as the cause, for the rea
son that the employment of such weapon
was not evident and the idea of its use /!
negatived by the evidence of sentries MOI
is 1t possible to accept the theory that tn,
explosion was deliberately brought out by
a torpedo or mine controlled as to direction
1t Is possible that a mine capable Of float
ing on the surface but kept at a fixed deptl
by attachment to weight resting on tn,
bottom may have drifted, weight and all
with tho tide and have come in contact Will
the Maine. In such case an explosion
would be inevitable. but II Is impossible t
say what are the probabilities OF such al
event having occurred without some fulle
idea as to the position Of mines laid dow
in Havana harbor and some information q
TO their construction and the weights at
tached to each"
The fierce gale raging round the British
coasts has disabled one Of the Spanish tor
pedo gunboats steaming from Clyde to Fer
rol The Audaz put into Waterford harbo
yesterday with its bows stove in, Its sterl
twisted and all the deck gear washed away
after attempting to cross the Bay of Biscay
1t must return to Clyde for repairs.
A correspondent at Newcastle-upon
Tyne telegraphs that the cruiser Almirant
Abren. purchased by the United States from
Brazil, will not be ready for ten months ex
cept under very exceptional pressure, whe
It may be completed In three. The Arm
strongs have informed Commander Brown
son that under these circumstances a consid
cradle additional outlay would be incurre
and he has cabled to Washington for instruc
tions.
SITUATION GRAVE.
Tho anglo Russian situation has undoubt
edly reached very grave pass. The Sails
bury government finds itself assailed for II
supineness and inactivity by all the minis
terial organs and the cabinet. which had tw
meetings yesterday. will probably be goade
on to some irrevocable step against it's bet
ter judgment. Russia has not achieved It
objects In the Gulf Of Pechili and can onl
DO onsted At the risk Of war. Salisbury |
blamed on all hands for having refraine
kom Intervention earlier. when Russia coul