5th Jan, Mvou as we admire the Japanese for their many good qualities, and for the energy with which they work to make theniselves independent of foreign aid, and justify their claim to be the Occidentals of the East, we cannot hold that they have come well out of the collision between the Ravenna and their new warship the Chishima Kan. We say nothing against them about the collision itself; that, as old Captain Champenois used to say about the loss of the Meikong on Cape Guardafui, is an accident that might happen to any one. But the way they have acted since the collision does them little credit. In the first place the refusal to allow the Japanese pilot of the Ravenna to go to Yokohama to give evidence before the British Court of Enquiry there is absolutely indefensible. Even allowing that the Nagasaki authorities were justified in considering him responsible for the collision and loss of life—before any other evidence had been taken—there was no reason for their refusal to let him go to Yokohama. Whey could have sent thu in custody and kept a watch on him, if they were afraid of his attempting to get away. He is well known to foreigners as the best of all) the Inland Sea pilots and a thoroughly reliable mau; and it would not seem to us that, conscious that he had done all in his power to avoid the collision, he should want to run away; but of course he knows his own authorities better than we do. Fortunately the captain of the Ravenna had taken the precaution to secure the sworn statement of the pilot before he fell into the clutches of the authorities at Nagasaki, and without this it would have been difficult to. hold a complete enquiry into the collision. Itis not only the local authorities who are to blame in this matter, for the British Charge Affaires at Yokio was appealed io, and was obliged to reply that lo could get no redress. Now we learn that the unfortunate pilot is to be prosecuted for homicide, before any enquiry has found that the Zavenna was to blame, the only Court of which we have so far heard, a Court whose constitution makes it impossible to impugn its impartiality, having entirely exonerated the P. and 0. steamer. It is, of course, galling to the Japanese government to lose by the mistake of its own officers a new man-of-war which has just cost some $700,000, and some eighty lives, and it would undoubtedly be glad to make the and 0. fonpeny pay a portion of the loss, and perhaps thinks in its semi-foreignised mind that convicting the pilot of homicide will prove the Ravenna in the wrong. But the only result can be to diminish its own reputation in all impartial eyes, and to prevent foreign steamers employing its subjects as pilots. No one will care to employ a Japanese pilot if after an accident occurs he is liable to be treated like poor Kichido, and in a tight place his nerve is liable to be affected by the kuvowledge that he will be so rudely handled by his own authorities should an accident occur which he could not) avoid. We cannot but smile at the! assurance of the Nagasaki authorities who call for witnesses from the Ravenna to aid them in prosecuting Kichido, after they refused to allow Kichido to give evidence in the British Court. Such specimens of Japanese ideas of justice as this cannot tend to reconcile foreigners to the much-desired abolition of exterritoriality. The ravings of the Japanese vernacular press against the Ravenna may be left to the contempt they merit, except that they show how thin is the veneer of civilisation on many of those who are supposed to be civilised in Japan.
It has been impossible for us to reproduce the account of the proceedings in the Court of Enquiry at Yokohama, occupying as they do some twenty columns or more in the local papers. It was a decidedly strong Court, Capt. Castle, R.N., of HMS. Leander, being President, and the other members being Mr. Consul 'Troup, Lieut. Sadler, R.N., of the Leander, and Captain Edwards of the Zembesi. here were also present the British Charge d' Affaires, officials from the Japanese Naval Department, which was also represented by Mr. Kirkwood, barrister, Japanese naval officers, and Mr. Lowder, barrister, representing the captain and officers of the Marenna, Ihe evidence of the Racenna's pilot, officers, and men was quite clear that only the white and red lights of the Chishima Aan were seen until just before the collision, the Ravenna's helm being constantly ported in order to keep "red to red," and one blast of the whistle being given to show that she was porting. When all three lights of the approaching vessel were seen, the /acenna's helm was put hard-a-port, and when only her green light was seen—the Chishima coming round all this time on the starboard helm—the Javennu's hel was put hard-a-starboard, but too late to have any effect, the engines were stopped and put full speed astern, and the collision took place. The two steamers, it must be remembered, were approaching each other at the rate of nearly twenty-four knots, or a nautical mile in 2} minutes. The first of the Hacenna's boats—although she was so badly cut into by the steel protective deck of the Chishima, Which sliced into her bows right up to the collision bulkhead, that there was danger of her siuking—was away in two minutes, and was followed almost. immediately by three others. The survivors from the Chiskima, which sank instantly, being apparently cut in two, though she was probably held together by her steel protective deck, were brought on board the Lavenna, wrapped in blankets, put into cabins, and provided with hot coffee and brandy and cigarettes and anything else they wanted.
The evidence of the commander of the Chishima Kan, Lieut. Kaburaki, who was saved, was that from the time he first saw the Ravenna's lights he starboarded, because after the white light he saw a faint green light. hen he continued to starboard, finally putting his helm hard-a-starboard. "'I'hen he saw a red light, and in a minute or a minute and a half the collision occurred. He was in the water half an hour before a boat picked him up, and when he got on board the Ztaverna he was not treated with the consideration due to the captain of a man-of-war. One or two of the other survivors made similar complaints, but when we remember that it was hardly daylight, that the Zavenna herself was seriously damaged, that her captain bad his own passengers and mails to attend to and send off to the Ampress, it is not to be wondered at if these unfortunate survivors, who would not be in a happy mood any way, were not treated quite as suavely as they would be in a first-class hotel. Practically everything possible was done for them. It might be mentioned that the Zavenna's men said they could not make out the Chiskima's whistling, and Lieut. Kaburaki explained that "a tot of water had lodged in his whistle, and it was a long time before it made a sound." One of this officer's complaints of his treatment on board the Lavexna was, that he sent for the captain—who must have been fally occupied with the condition of his own ship—to come to his cabin two or three times, and he thought that once the captain did not come, but he had no clear recollection. Meantime he was wearing the captain's best suit of cloches. It_is evident from the finding of the Court, which will be found in another column, and in which it is significant to see that the evidence of the survivors of the Chishima Kan is not even mentioned, that the Court felt that the Ravenna's account of the circumstances preceding the collision was the credible one, and altogether, as we said at first, the Tapauese come very badly out of the affair from first to last." This is anything- but comforting to the many foreign friends of Japan, among whom we have always counted ourselves,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.