27th October.
Ir is certain that the new Hague conference which has been convened by the peace-loving Czar will.take as one subject for consideration the laying of mines in the open sea. For at least a year now the Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili have been danger zones to innocent merchant steamers' from the presence of a large number of mines laid down or sob afloat by the recent belligerents. That these engines of destruction should be used for purposes of defence in the territorial waters of a 1 country is possibly excusable; but even in that case adequate precautions against their breaking adrift should be taken. But that they should be set free in the open sea, as was confessedly done by the Russians at Porb Arthur, for the Hatsuse and Yashima were sunk by a string of mines laid down by the Russian steamer. Amur ten miles from the mouth of the harbour of Port Arthur, or should be so carelessly secured
outrage om neutral chipping, and as that they reedily 5o adrift, is an we have seen more than once. or twice in the last few months an actual, not merely a possible outrage, There is not only the loss of lives and property to be considered. The voyage between Shanghai and the northern ports in all weathers is an anxious task enough already, but when to this is added the anxiety of being constantly on the watch to avoid this new and terrible danger, the strain must tell on the. officers of the steamers, and indeed on all on board, The masters of merchant vessels do all in their power to destroy a mine if they see it, and in any case to fix its position as a warning; to their brother officers, but this is nob of much real use, as.these miserable engines' of destruction are always on the move. They drift southward in the winter with the northerly winds and currents, and northward in the summer. We understand that they have been seen as far south as Steep Island, if not even as far as the Formosa Channel. No precaution can avail against those that are sunk below the surface of the sea, as was the case with the mine which sank the Hsiehho; and apparently no expert can tell us how long this danger will endure.
Representations have been made time and again to the Diplomatic Body at Peking and to the British Government, and the naval authorities have been asked to detail men-of-war to go out and destroy these dangers to commerce, but in vain. When questions. have been asked in the House of Commons, the Secretary of the Navy has blandly replied tha our men-of-war have been instructed to destroy them whenever they see them. No one doubts that if the captain of a man-of-war saw a mine he'would destroy it; but this is not enough; we want our men-of-war to go and look for them and destroy them, But Admiral Noel has now no small vessels at his disposal for such 'a purpose as this; and we are told thab it is entirely unreasonable that 'a cruiser should be risked in such a dangerous task. Under these circumstances it. has been suggested that the principal maritime Powers should unite to charter four: merchant steamers, and send them out to sweep the sea, The total expense would be no more that the value of one coasting steamer and what she carries, The long-received idea that an important part of the duty of British men-of-war is the protection of British commerce on the seas has apparently become obsolete, and is only brought cub when it is necessary to defend in the House of Commons the constant growth of the naval estimates. At cther times it is urged that the Navy exists for Imperial purposes, and that if merchant steamers want mines cleared away, they must do it themselves, and they do. In fact, they do for the safety of the men-of-war passing to and fro between Hongkong and Weihaiwei the work which it seems to us, apparently wrongly, the men-of-war of all nations which participate in the coasting trade ought todo for them; and in this view we believe the British taxpayer would concur, if he knew the facts.
There is one point in this connec. tion which we have already mentioned, but which weare anxious to state again more prominently, and thab is the responsibility of the Japanese and Russian Governments, Ib is they who have disseminated this danger in, the northern seas, and we hold that it is their duty to compensate at least the individuals who have lost their property or been injured through mines, and the families of those who have lost their lives, When a vessel strikes one of these mines, it is impossible for those on board to knew whether it isa Russian or a Japanese mine, and therefore the two Governments, now a fund from" which compensation happily friends, should jointly provide should be paid; and we feel sure that they will see the justice of this when it is represented to them. They cannot, and we are sure they would not. try to, evade' their obvious responsibility for the existence of these unforeseen and unavoidable dangers to navigation, Ib seems that they cannot neutralise what they have done, and ip is only fair that they should compensate, as far as money can compensate, the entirely innocent victims of' their warlike operations. Ib is the least they can do, and it is their duty to do it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.