12 JANUARY 1918, Page 2

The hospital ship ` Rows' was torpedoed and sunk by

an enemy submarine in the Bristol Channel on the night of Friday week. The sick and wounded were all safely transferred to the boats, and picked up an hour or two later by patrol vessels. Three of the Lascar crew were lost. This atrocious outrage was not merely a direct violation of international law and of the wider code of humanity, but was also a. deliberate breach of the agreement which Germany made, through the King of Spain, in September last. The enemy promised to respect hospital ships passing to and from the Mediterranean, if Spanish officers travelled in them east of Gibraltar. The Rewa ' had a Spanish officer on board during her voyage from Salonika to Gibraltar, her last port of call, and had thus complied in every respect with the agreement. But one " scrap of paper " is very much like another to our dishonour- able and unscrupulous enemy. The sinking of the Rewa ' is one more proof that we cannot negotiate with the present rulers of Germany.