June 11.
Until full details of the circumstances in which the British] submarine Poseidon was sunk off Wei-hai-wei are known it is rot possible to assign definitely the causes of the disaster. The news reached Shanghai yesterday morning and created a most painful impression. The submarine so recently came to the China station, on her first commission, that the sudden termination of her career seems! doubly distressing. It is satisfactory to learn that a large number of her complement hi been saved and at the time of writing it is hoped that the toll of lives will not be as heavy as vas at first feared.—Thus, within two years of her launching at Barrow-in-Furness, the Poseidon has joined the all too many victims of the risk of their dangerous calling. The sympathy of the King and Queen has, as always, been promptly expressed for the bereaved families of the brave men who have perished. That sympathy will be echoed by the! nation at large and the British community in Ching, recognizing the debt which it owes to the vigilance and, flevotion of the Royal Navy, will desire to be sociated in an especial degree with the grief so poignantly evoked. In these days the hazards @f air tend to add to the toll which adventure and daring take of human life, The sea remains constant in its insistence on a share in this grim reminder of its power, whether by the accident of human misadventure or by the exercise of its own natural elements of destruction.
It may be assumed that the naval forces on the spot have done all that is humanly po: sible to reduce the dimensions. of the tragedy. Shanghai knows well the' fine—spirit) animating the men of the} cruisers and other craft mentioned as being on the scene of the collision. The messages of sympathy received from the Governor of Hongkong, from the General Officer Commanding the China Command and from the Commodore of the 4th Submarine Flotilla, mark the depth of the emotions aroused among comrades of all the services. They proudly recognize the distinction which they all have in common—the right to die in the discharge of their duty to the King they serve so devotedly. It} must indeed be a source of the deepest regret to Sir Arthur Waistell, the new Commander-in-Chief' at Portsmouth, that, within a few hours of taking over his new command, he should. be charged with the duty of conveying royal condolences on account of the loss of a vessel so lately under his command here.
The loss of these liv 150) those lost in the almost coincident disaster to, the French air-mail between Rangoon and Akyab, comes. as a vivid reminder of the debt owed by the community to men who! cheerfully expose themselves. to) exceptional peril in the ordinary! course of their occupation. The. crew of a submarine, in peace' time evolutions, as 'a corres pondent has oe: out to-day, have always to face possibilities which may be compared, in degree, with the risks of landing taken by the air-pilot. Whether a risk, of this kind came into play when the Vu Ta rammed the Poseidon' cannot yet be ascertained. The Poseidon may be salved, although the difficulties inthe way of. salvage appear to be great, so far as the present information rords ide. The men how-joined the great camp: seamen who, in pitting—their skill and courage against the ever active champions of the sea's worst moods, have had to) pay the penalty. 'They will be, mourned and honoured as they, should be who do their duty and, in their performance, have to' make an all too early sacrifice of the greatest gift to man.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.