DOGGER BANK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 254, 24 October 1905, Page 5

DOGGER BANK.

INCIDENT INTENTIONAL

MEANT TO EMBROIL FRANCE.

ADMIRAL FREMAHTLE'S STORY

(By c »We.-rP«-s Assorlatlon.—Copyright.)

(Beceived 8.24, a.m)

LONDON, October 23.. The Navy League banquet in honour of the centenary of the battle of Trafalgar was attended ; by Admiral the Hon. Sir E. R. Fremahtle, X.C.8., who made a speech in which he introduced a statement of a decidedly sensational character.

Referring to the growth of the entente cordiale between Great Britain and' France, he had occasion to refer to the Dogger. Bank incident, and in this connection he related an episode from his own experience. . He met a .certain Russian officer who -pas well acquainted with the affair. ;c He assured mc," said Admiral Fremautle, 'that the TDogger Bank incident was intentional, and was designed to embroil France and to cause a European war."

[The English reviews and magazines a few months ago were full of conjectures is to the meaning of the Dogger. Bank incident. One theory which gained some credence for its certainly well-reasoned conclusion held (1) that two torpedoboats were present at the time of the outrage, (2) that they were neither British nor Russian, and "(3) that Lord Charles Beresford's orders when he started from Gibraltar with the Channel fleet were to sink not the Russian but the German fleet if he met them. It will be noticed that Admiral Fremantle's in'ormant does not say on whose part the ncident was intentional—although the imputation may on general grounds be held to be that it was on Russia's.]