FLOATING MINES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 55, 28 November 1907, Page 4

FLOATING MINES.

: The recent Hague Conference was, perhaps, notable for only one achievement of any import, and that a negative one—its rejection of Great Britain's proposal to abolish floating mines, on account of the injury they are liable to inflict on the innocent third party who, in warfare as in everyday life, generally gets the worst of it. This weapon of wholesale destruction is one of the most dangerous factors in modern naval warfare. In the struggle between Russia and Japan it was used by. both combatants with deadly efiect.' To. it-was due the loss

of the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk and the destruction of the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima. But, besides this great loss caused to the two nations engaged in the struggle, there were a large number of casualties to neutral shipping due to mines breaking adrift; and, it is believed, several vessels, up to the present unaccounted for, and known to have been in the "track of stray mines, disappeared with all on board through the same agency. It was because of such happenings ai\d holocausts as these that Great Britain, with a view to humanise naval warfare as far as possible, 'submitted to The Hague Conference rules for the purpose of regulating the employment of so deadly and devilish a weapon. It would have been expected that an assemblage of the civilised nations of the world in this Twentieth Century would have welcomed an opportunity such as this was to at least mitigate the loss and suffering incidental to war, and would have unanimously supported the British Government"'; humanitarian efforts in this direct: and in this connection. Certainly . i might have with confidence been looked for from a conference whose prime mission is ' that of Peace. But Great Britain's avowed sea rival—Germany—was opposed to the idea in'toto, and other nations, from varying reasons, had to follow her lead. It was patent to Germany, no doubt, that, in the naval war which many look forward to as sure to come when Germany herself is ready for it, the over-sea commerce which would suffer most by sowing the seas with .these drifting engines, of destruction— .the floating mines—would assuredly not be Germany's, since that was comparatively a negligible quantity. Was it to be expected that for mere sentimental reasons Germany was to forego so great an advantage over a probable foe? Thus Britain's' efforts, to' the everlasting disgrace of The Hague Conference of 19,07, were not crowned with success. A writer in the " Daily Mail" gives some interesting details of the use of submarine mines even so far back a?.' the 'sixties. In the Crimea, he says, not much : was heard of the device, though there is. a story of a.'cunning engineer who screwed a petard on to the bottom of his own admiral's flagship in mistake for>a Russian vessel. Fortunately,' he discovered his mistake in time. But* in the American War of Secession, no fewer than twenty-eight vessels were destroyed by mines, the greatest sufferers being the attacking naval power, the Federals. One of the most dramatic incidents of this war was provided by the use of mines. Farra-, gut was sweeping up Mobile Bay (Alabama), witli! laudible intent to wipe out . the enemy, when,, without warning, there was an explosion, and down went the Tecumseh like a cracked pot; It was a horrible dilemma. To go on might mean the destruction of the fleet'; to go back was. certain' disaster. Farragut held on—right through a mine-field, as afterwards transpired —and won a brilliant victory.. But this was rare luck, of'course, and. it must be accepted as a certainty that, where 'tliese : teri'ible engines'of 'destruction are sown broadcast, the loss of life and irioney, both ,to legitimate combatants and, what- is worse, to the neutral nation innocently pursuing its business on the waters by accustomed routes, must be appalling. Some humourist .gave to the Conference' the name of the Vague Conference, but it has 'shown itself worse than ,vague; it has proved futile for tho purposes for which it was primarily conceived and convened, a result to be expected from an.assemblage, tlie majority of whom are evidently not- animated by those humanitarian principles which make for Peace. : . '