The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-01
Tuesday Nov. 1. 1904.
ENGLAND AND RUSSIA.

Admiral Rojestyensky sticks 10 MS
original story that his fleet was attack
ed in the German ocean by two Japa-
nese torpedo boats. In a second state
ment. made to the correspondent OF
The London Chronicle, he a that his
vessels were fired on by the enemy g.
He now claims that six shots hit the
Russian ships and that n OF them
the Aurora. was injured and has not
vet been repaired. This warship, he
saws threw out her search light and
signaIed to the fleet. 1.-TWO float
ing mines near here" Two men on the
flagship, according to his statement
were wounded. The London Chronicle
suggests that probably the Russians
hit their own vessels. If they were
hit at all it must have been as The
Chronicle suggests. A naval ohcer
who cannot tell the difference between
4 torpedo BOAT and a fishing trawler
or between a floating mine and a fish
net can hardly be considered very good
authority on any matters pertaining
to naval warfare
These Russian officers, We suppose
will stick to their absurd story that
their vessels were attacked by two
torpedo boats. This statement a
Increased the indignation of the people
of Great Britain. They look upon it
as casting serious reflections upon the
integrity of their nation; for they say
no japanese warships could have been
in that locality without the knowledge
of the public officials. Therefore such
a statement implies that the British
were secretly violating their country's
neutrality and giving important coun-
tenance and aid to Russia's enemies.
Up to last Thursday it looked very
much like war between Russia and
Great Britain. The delay in the re-
port of the Russian admiral who had
put into Vigo, Spain, with his fleet
only intensified the feeling among The
British. His report, when it did come,
did no mend matters, for the British
looked upon it as an insult to their
nation.
This hostile feeling has been greatly
allayed by the agreement Of the two
governments to refer the matter 10 ar
filtration by The Hague tribunal and
thus the prospects of war have been
averted. But what will the result be
if the officers of the Russian fleet en-
gagged in the supposed battle insist in
their testimony taken for the consid-
Grafton of that tribunal upon the truth
of their first statement and still declare
that there were two Japanese warships
hidden among the British fishing boats
and attacked their w~arships from that
position? High British officials declare
such a statement an insult to their
people. If the Russians insist on maxi
ing this statement and, as justification
of their conduct, repeat it under the So
lemnity of a legal inquiry into the oc-
currence new n fully as serious
complications may arise. The British
will be compelled to attack the veraci-
ty of those Russian naval officers or
admit that she was secretly aiding the
Japanese while pretending to be entire
ly neutral-the very thing that she
now declares an insult when charged
by these officers.
We hope war can be averted through
the reference of this matter to the tri-
bunal Of The Hague, but we have our
doubts about this procedure doing
more than p~ostponing the inevitable
clash between those two powers. The
eastern question can hardly be settled
finally before these two nations have
come TO war over it.