Evening Post.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1904, Page 4

Evening Post.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1904. PEACE OR WAR? • • The war-clouds, which were temporarily dissipated by the announcement on Saturday last that the matters in dispute between Britain and Russia were to be "referred to an International Commission under the Hague Tribunal, have unfortunately gathered again, and the outlook is now at least as black as it was a week ago. In seme respects it must, indeed, be regarded as distinctly worse, for the Russians have now fuller means of knowledge than they then had, and their latest action appears to be either a direct breach of faith, or at least the outcome of a misunderstanding which must create the same moral effect. "All the Russian warships left Vigo to-day," is the news now flashed to us by tho cable on the authority of Router's Agency, and the Gibraltar correspondent of the same agency is also reported as saying that "Lord Beresford has suddenly ordered all officers on shore leave to return at once to their ships." If the Russians are on their way south from Vigo, the present is certainly no time for any officer of the Gibraltar fleet, to be away on shore leave. They will need watching all the way, and it may be that they will need stopping. The terms of the reference to the International Commission as announced by Mr. Balfour, and reported in our cablegrams on Monday, provided that "meanwhile that portion of the Baltic Fleet concerned in the outrage is to remain at Vigo, Spain." If this was a mere understanding, and not an express stipulation, then our diplomatists have been guilty of a very culpable laxity in relying upon anything so vague in a matter of the utmost and most urgent gravity ; if, on the other hand, there was really a definite agreement on the point, and not a mere understanding, then Russia has deliberately broken faith, added insult to the injury previously committed in- the North Sea, and rendered the possibility of a settlement by the Hague Tribunal or any other peaceful method absolutely hopeless.

Assuming- that what has taken place does not, really involve such serious consequences as we have suggested, it must still be admitted that the prospect is becoming incieasingly serious. The Russian peasant is not the only man in his country for- whom the facts are co suppressed and distorted as to make a rational judgment impossible. The Tear, who at one time aspired to the title of peace-maker, which has since fallen to our own King Edward, betrays an eager anxiety to accept any theory that will , save his fleet from disgrace, and the wildest improbability does nob overtax his credulity. In a conversation with the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg he is reported as having "emphasised his belief that the tragedy was the result of an attack by the Japanese," and he finds confirmation in the rumour, for ■fchich he asks no evidence, that "Japanese had been sent to Hull to plot the* de»-' traction of the fleet." Like Falstaff's men iv buckram, tbe number of the tor-pedo-boats engaged in the attack is growing daily. 'It was so dark that the Russian Admiral could not tell a trawler from an ironclad, and^yet the Kamschatka "saw four torpedo-boats pursuing the fleet" as distinctly as Falstaff saw the rogues in buckram when "it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand." The Tsar's theory clearly implies the complicity of England in the alleged for how could any Japanese ves"sel have appeared in the North Sea unless equipped in England for the purpose, and despatched from an English port? The Russian case before the International Commission, if the Commission ever sits, will presumably cover this theory, and the effect will be eminently pacific whatever the result of the decision may be. The Royal message of sympathy and encouragement which has been sent to the gallant Admiral will tend in the same direction. Every other nation but Russia continues favourable to our cause, but it may be that the exuberance of German emotion on our behalf looks a little further than the merits of the matter immediately at issue. Yet whatever ulterior motives Germany may have, the verdict of the civilised world is that our cause is just.