The typhoon has not failed to produce another example of the imperative need of wireless on all ships. Captain W. E. Kent. writes from on board the R.M.S. Empress of Russia: "I have been out in the recent typhoon and last night (Saturday) down the coast I met a steamer who asked by Morse lamp where the typhoon was. After we had told him, he came back with the remark that he wished he had wireless. She was a. fine coast boat and, of course, should be fitted. We were lying to at the time waiting for the storm to pass which was between us and Shanghai, otherwise we could not have given him the weather report by Morse lamp, there would not have been time." Our readers wil] not have forgotten Captain Kent's letter on the wreck of the Hong Moh on the Lammocks last April, when the vessel standing by her could only signal to passing ships by means of Morse lamps for help, and was ultimately compelled to leave her in order to get proper assistance. As we pointed out in commenting on that letter, the number of ships travelling up and down the China coast has usually been sufficient io bring help within a few hours where a wreck actually occurs. But this fact, which is but a slender hope at best, breaks down altogether in respect of a typhoon, where the whole essence of safety lies in getting information well ahead. Under conditions preivailing in the Far East, there is no means of compelling shipowners to instal wireless on all their ships, but the force of public opinion must ultimately force them to do so and every fresh instance of a ship not having wireless and finding herself badly in need of it is to he emphasized accordingly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.