18th April.
As we have said before, we are quite Prepared to acquiesce if the imperial policy thas guides the Admiralty at "home demands. the withdrawal of all the British - men-of-war except first-class cruisers from the Chinese station; we may think that this policy is. being pushed to an extreme point, but it is not for us to question. it if it is dictated by consideration.of national as distinguished from local necessities. Io seems to have been decided by the present Government that Great Britain's responsibilities have out ranged her powers, and that she accordingly obliged to withdraw from the policing which she regarded heretofore as her duty as the Mistress of the Servs. Ivis the Government who are the real Little Englanders uow, @ position which the over-sens Britishers do not accept with a good grace. It seems to us: impossible, for instance, that British: steamers should be running up and down the coast between the Yangtze and the Peiho, in hourly danger of bein; blown up by Russian" mines with all on board, and that little or.no eff rt should be made by the British navy to clear away these dangers, The fact is that Sir John -Fisher's reform has left the Commander-in-Chief on this station with no vessels een which he employ for purposes of this kind. Ifa first-class cruiser were sent out to destroy mines, heavy weather might come on or a fog, in which the cruiser herself might strike a mice, and the loss would be. terrible. What we read and hear now about these mines makes' us admire still more the skill displayed by. the Japanese in their operations in the neighbourhood of Port A: thur:
The danger of mines has not been exaggerated; rather, it has been. the endeavour of everyone concerned sto minimise the danger, for obvious reasons. Nu one wi-hes to undoly alarm, passengers, and shippers, and insurers. Last year we were told that the-anxious look-out men were mistaking empty barrels and bully beef tins and fishermen's buoys for mines; but this year there has been no possibility of pretending that the sea between the Miaoton Istands, and a point some distance south of the South-cast Promontory is not strewn with these dangers May junks and fishing boats have fallen victims to them, many of them have drifted ashore and been ex: ploded, accidentally or purposely, 'The captain of one regular trader in recent report, says thet one of hose mines came very near to bei the cause of his towel' ootraetieg
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.