The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-11-18
GREAT BRITAIN BEGINS AN IN.
CURRY ON HER OWN BEHALF
TO ESTABLISH FACTS.
SOME AMUSING INCIDENTS
SIMPLE FISHERMEN GIVE CHAR.
AcTERISTIc ANSWERS TO
SOME QUESTIONS.

which Great Britain conducts on her
own behalf into the North sea incident
opened during the day. Vice Admiral
Bridge and Butler Aspinwall, an adj
miralty court lawyer, who were ap-
pointed to conduct the inquiry, and
whose report will form the basis of
the British case before the interna-
tional commission at Paris, sat at a
large table surrounded by maps show
ing the Dogger Bank and the North
sea. In front was an array of counsel
and government officials.
The correspondent of the Associated
Press learned at the outset that the
board of trade solicitors who have
been preparing the case have found
no evidence to suggest the presence
of the torpedo boats among the fishing
fleet. The inquiry will, therefore,
merely be an application of the evil
dence at the inquest and it will be adj
journed to London in the course of
few days, the proceedings here being
confined to a narrative Of the shoot
ing.
The findings of the court will be
sent to the board of trade and will
be submitted to the international COM
mission.
Admiral Bridge started matters with
business like promptness, briefly an
nouncing the method of procedure and
stating that there will be no speeches.
Various counsel representing the
trawler companies and the victims re-
ceived permission to examine the wit
nesses, and Mr.. Pickford, counsel for
the board of trade, summarized the
facts connected with the 'lamentable
occurrence" saying there was nothing
connected with the trawling fleet
which could possibly account for the
shooting.
First Witness Called.
The first witness was Mr.. Behring,
managing director of the Gamecock
fleet He testified that for twenty
five or thirty years the fishing fleet
had been TRAVELLING off Dogger Bank.
The Russian consul, who was ac-
commodated with a seat on the plat
FORM asked the first two witnesses if
the men of the trawler fleet had re-
ported seeing other warships besides
the Russian vessel, but apparently
only the Russian vessels had been met.
The witnesses all denied that any
arms, ammunition or cOntraband were
on board the trawlers. There was no
ROOM it was added, to carry tor
pedo.
"Vice Admiral Carr, who was in
charge of the crawling fleet at the time
of the attack, said he had been in the
naval reserve for seventeen years and
was accustomed to men-of-war and
naval signalling Carr reiterated that
the first Russian division passed close
to the trawlers without firing and that
the second division, after starboard-
ing and keeping their searchlights
steadily on the vessels, fired with the
result known.
After luncheon it was announced
that DR.. Herbert Woodhouse would
represent the Russian embassy at the
inquest.
A home Office expert in explosives
identified the shells as Russian.
The skipper of the trawler Keith
in reply to questions said that there
were 10 Japanese trawlers and no
Japanese present, and that no Jap
anese agents made any suggestion to
him whatever.
Skipper Amuses Spectators.
The skipper of the Snipe related
how his vessel had been hit. DR..
Woodhouse questioned him closely. He
asked why he had not stopped when
the first shots were fired or at least
raised signals of distress.
There was some amusement when
DR.. Woodhouse asked: did you want
to get hit again.
The skipper, in the broadcast York
shire dialect, replied:
'Noa That's why l kept agoing."
Counsel for the board of trade sug-
gested it was rather hard to say what
would have made the Russians stop.
What you'd you have done?" asked
one burly fisherman, amidst laughter.
DR.. Woodhouse replied he was not
the skipper of trawler.
A surgeon of the North sea hos
pital ship Alpha was the last witness
and brought out the rather important
statement that all the Alpha's lights
were extinguished soon after the fire
commenced.
The inquiry was then adjourned.
The commissioners expressed salts
faction at the progress made. 1t is
hoped that all the testimony regard
ing the cause of the shooting will be
concluded by the afternoon of Nov. II.
A suggestion by the Russian consul
that the shellling was due to the trawl-
ers failing to stop when blank shots
were fired and the fact that the lights
were extinguished on at least one
trawler is considered here to in some
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