We are as without' any sufficient evidence to enable us to judge of the, cause of the terrible disaster in which once more, after so short an interval, s submarine has gone to the bottom with all hands. We know, bow-ever, that the sinking of AS was duc, not like that of Al to a collision, but to an explosion, similar to that which caused the sinking of another submarine in Queenstown Harbour. It is hardly likely that the risk of loss in the case of submarines will ever be redticed to as low as other craft; but even though we do not yet know for certain what part, if any, submarines played in the victory of Toushima, their value in maritime "[fare soams to be pretty well proved, and] that being so the danger has to be faced, though as submarines emerge still farther from the experimental stage it will be largely reduced.
16th June.
Is it Peace?
President Roosevelt's intervention on behalf of peace has, of course, received the warmest approval of almost everyone in this country; but opinion as to the probability of any valuable result from the meeting of plenipotentiaries at Washington is very much divided. Japan has won universal commendation for her ready acquiescence in the proposals made to her from the United States; for it is impossible to deny that according to all precedents of warfare she had a right to decline any representations made to her other than a direct supplication for peace from her virtually conquered foe. Her ready acquiescence is taken as an earnest, of her intention to be modest and merciful in hor demands; but it must be admitted that some of her professed friends in this country are hardly reasonable in their counsels. She has been advised, for instance, from more than one quarter, to refrain from demanding an indemnity. It is pointed out that an indemnity is by no means always exacted by the victor in modern wars. The case of the Franco-German war is, it is urged, exceptional, Prussia's ability to enforce payment of an indemnity being due not to her general success in the war but to her being able to hold the French capital at her mercy. It must be admitted that Japan cannot hope to besiege St. Petersburg to capitulation; but on the other hand she may well be able to inflict losses on Russia far greater than would be covered by a sum of two hundred millions sterling which has been suggested as the amount of the indemnity which might be demanded, There are many, therefore, who hold the view that Japan has a right to insist, not merely that all her demands prior to the war shall be conceded, and that Russi jit to conditions which impossible for her to re-open the question or to menace Japan for generations to come, but also that she shall refund the monetary expense to which Japan has beef put in enforcing her rights, The Revolutionary Movement.
Since Togo's great naval victories the revolutionary movement in Russia has revived with greatly increas-d vigour, and although it is still difficult for us in this country to gauge the possibilities of suc cessful revolution in Russia, there is no' room for doubt that the bureaucratic authorities realise at last that they are iously threatened, and that it may need da This, it is believed, has all their military resources to meet the
with them more than any other ration in consenting to receiv: and consider the Japanese terms of peace, For this rowen there are a good many people in this country who do not view with unmixed satisfaction the of an early conclusion of peace, would enable the autocracy to bring home the whol churian army to crush those who sre rising on behalf of libert Japan is astute enough to realise th and it may be concluded therefore that while she will moderate her demands sufficiently to vindicate her position as a civilised and humane Power, she will not be disposed to concede anything which she may justly claim.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.