BALTIC FLEET'S ATTACK ON BRITISH TRAWLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12695, 25 October 1904, Page 4

BALTIC FLEET'S ATTACK ON BRITISH TRAWLERS.

Russia has done many wanton things in the present war, but she has now surpassed herself in folly. The cablegrams to-day give details of the bombardment of the Hull trawling fleet by the Baltic fleet, with consequent loss of life and injuries to a number of men. The trawling fleet of 150 vessels was quietly at work on.the Dogger Bank, a shoal in the German Ocean, when the Russian warships came up. The trawlers were using acetylene lamps in their fishing, and they burned green flares to denote their business. So close did the leading warships pass that the fishermen could observe the sailors on them. Then the torpedoboats were sent to inspect the trawlers. After all this proof of the business of the trawlers, the Russians poured shot and shell for twenty minutes into them, killing and wounding men and sinking boats. Can there be anything said in palliation of such dastardly conduct It will be said that it was a mistake! Will anybody believe that it was a mistake There have been so many mistakes of that sort and all against British ships. There was the Knight Commander mistake, the Hipsang mistake, the Malacca mistake, and other mistakes. The Hipsang, there is no doubt whatever, was deliberately torpedoed because she was a British ship. These things come from the Russian belief that Britain is for peace at any price, and a peace-at-any-price policy is usually costly in th? end. The atrocity of shelling peaceful fishing boats for from twenty to thirty minutes— and never getting a reply— be explained away, and cannot be expiated in a Foreign Office communication. Britain has had many affronts in the war, but this is the greatest. It is an affront that will sink deep into the hearts of the people throughout the Empire, an affront that will rouse the British blood as it has not been roused fox* many a long year.' ~..