THE DOGGER BANK ATROCITY.

Manawatu Herald, 22 November 1904, Page 3

THE DOGGER BANK ATROCITY.

the hull Enquiry. LONDON, Nov. 19.. A Reuter St. Petersburg message states that inquiries at the British Embassy and Foreign office show that the text of the convention is being discussed in a friendly spirit, and there is no reason to apprehend that a mutually satisfactory armugenaSiit will not be reached. Count Lamsdorff denies that there 18 any difference with the Admiralty, and declares that both accepted the draft in principle. The suggestion that the agreement was repudiated was untrue. Reuter’s agent adds that considerable importance is attached to the suggested Herbal modifications. The inference is that the blame attaching to officers will not be considered in accordance with the spirit of the commission. The Marquis of Lansdowne’s Words as to the degree of blame were mistranslated in some quarters as the degree of punishment and great resentment resulted, says the Kovoe Vremya, owing to Britain’s trying to transform ftn inquiry of facts into an inquiry of culpability. ’At the inquiry, Costello, boat? swain of the Gull, said he saW a black mass without lights and mistook it for a torpedoer. But he discovered if to be the Alpha, a mission boat. When he thought it was a torpedoer he remarked to a comrade; “ There is a torpedoer.” On being cross-examined he said he was quite sure it was not a torpedoer, but was not sure it was the Alpha. He was not aware what Green testified.

Smirke, chief engineer, heard shots and a whistle. Green exclaimed ; “ There are torpedoers ” ; but added, almost in the same breath : “ No; it is a trawler.” Cross-examined witness said he heard-Costello’s remark. Witness would not say he had not thought he saw a torpedoer. Other evidence showed that the mysterious ship seen on the morning ot the 22nd looked like an ordinary merchantman. This tends to exonerate the Russians for watching the Crane without assisting her. The Times’ Russian correspondents assert that while the Russian naval men increasingly believe that the Russians fired on their own vessels at the Dogger Bank, yet the consensus of opinion is that England will accept any solution of the difficulty to avert war. The newspaper, Novoe Vremya’s London correspondent declares that the leading British admirals justify Admiral Rozhdestvensky’s action, T&E TERMS OF THE CONVENTION. Reuter’s St. Petersburg correspondent confirms Noyof Vremya’s -statement that Britain and Russia have agreed to a modification of the text of the convention.