The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-10
PEACE NOT IN DANGER
LORD LANsDowNE SPEAKS AT MAYORS BANQUET.
Talkes the Place of Premier naifesh' Absent Owing to Sickness-Cars
 GUS Pageant Marred By Dad weather.

banquet at the Guild 1ai tohionS
 etgn Secretary Lansdowne. In the aD- sence of Premier Balfour. who. oy tne evidence of his physician, IS sun Iesl inr his iriured leg. was the principal speaker
 The 2so guests, in addition to former Mayor Ritchie, who Is succeeded by John Pound, and the Marquis ana Mar- chioness of Lansdowne, included the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Kendall T. Davidson, the mem bers of the Cabinet, the foreign repre- sentatives, members of Parliament ana other prominent persons
 Lord Lansdowne responding to the toast, His Matesty's Ministers, re- ferred to the unfortunate absence or Mir. Balfour, who. In spite of his illness had not ceased to actively participate In the affairs of the country.
 Continuing. the Foreign Minister saio that while London was principaHy in- terested that peace should prevah ev- esywhere, he did not think they snouio think of peace at any price.
 At this moment" said Lord Lans- downe, .contemplating the progress Of the terrible struggle between two brave and gallant nations in the Far East' can one of us contemplate without re- gret the legion after legion of brave men led forth to meet their fate ana the ruined homes and broken hearts! We can conceive no more terrible pun ishment than the remorse of any min ister or body of ministers who, rom loss Of temper or desire of popularity. brought upon the country the scourge and calamity Of needless war.
 "At this suspicious moment am apie to announce to you that not only the peace of the country Is unbroken. put 50 far as I am able to foresee there is no reason why 1t should not remain unbroken. Not only have we had the good fortune to avoid war, but by the exercise of strict neutrality and wise international arrangements we have done something to restrain the area Of hostiiities. The country, however has not altogether escaped anxieties. For last few days we have been race to face with an incident which moved the peo- pie of this country as few other ip- cidents have ever done. In the inci- dent of October 21 in the North Sea was an attack on British citizens and an affront on the British flag which if intentional would not contemplate the consequences. It was deplorabie and unacceptable blunder. but am bound to add that recent evidence has satisfied the British Government that the Russian Government believed in good faith that the facts were different from what we supposed and that each party was convinced Of the justice of its own cause. Great Britain has adopted the only course in referring the matter to an independent and irn- partial tribunal and we found no dif- ficuIty In arriving at the principal ques- tions nor in deciding that the terms for their reference under The Hague convention were such as we could ac- cept."
 ? After detailing what would be the pro- cedure of the court. Lord Lansdowne referred to the smallness of the num- Der of the Russian officers left at Vigo and said: Tt was not for us to as- sume the responsibility for the selec- ton of the officers. That rested with Russia and 1t would be great mis- take to relieve her of the responsibili- ty" safs l
 The Foreign secrktary said that the had received distinct as- surance that the Russian officers de- tained were those who were directly implicated and if the inquiry showed that others were culpable, they also would be punished. Great Britain has recieved a full expression of regret, a promise of ample compensation and a guarantee against a recurrence with security for all neutral commerce and promise of the punishment of the guilty persons. Was 1t possible to secure more? Lord Lansdowne referred to other questions which have arisen dur ing the war, especially that of contra band. which had been largely cleared up and since July there had been no case of seizing British ships by Rus sian vessels.
 Lord Lansdowne then referred to the Anglo French treaty and said he hoped 1t would be adopted by a large majority of the chamber of deputies and that 1t would be effeetual in removing danger. ou sand difficult questions from inter- national controversy. He saw some thing of this in the assistance Great Britain has received during the last few days by the French Government In bringing about an amicable settle ment between Great Britain ana Rus sia.