A SERIOUS SITUATION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 10, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 32.

A SERIOUS SITUATION.

The actions of the Russian volunteer fleet in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and of the regular Russian fleet from Vladivostok off the east coast of Japan, and the question of the right of Russian vessels of war passing through the Dardanelles, are bringing about a series of complications which may have the most serious consequences. Russia has called her volunteer war-vessels from the Red Sea, but will replace them with vessels of the regular fleet, and it is expected that these will continue the work of holding up and searching merchant vessels passing through the Red Sea. The course of the Russian commanders has been so overbearing, and so little attention has been paid by them to the rules supposed to govern belligerents in searching neutral vessels at sea, that the most forceful and decided protests have been made by Great Britain. Russia has given certain promises; but while these were being given the vessels of the Vladivostok fleet were sinking ships off the coast of Japan. Among the vessels sunk was the British ship, Knight Commander, which, it is declared, had on board a cargo of a nature wholly outside the definition of contraband of war. England protests against the sinking of merchantmen or their confiscation before their cases have been tried before a prominent prize court. The United States also is preparing to take strong grounds against Russia's action on the sea.

Speaking in the British House of Lords on the Knight Commander incident, the British Foreign Secretary said:—

The examination of the cargo of the Knight Commander appears to have been very perfunctory. Under these circumstances the government could come to no other conclusion than that a very serious breach of international law had been committed by the captors of the vessel.

The tone of the secretary's speech was most serious throughout. The government demanded the release of the Knight Commander's crew, and requested Russia to cease acts of a similar nature in the future. There has been a feeling of deepest indignation in England over this incident especially, and an unwise move might precipitate another war.