18 MARCH 1916, Page 3

We regret to record that the destroyer Coquette,' the torpedo-

boat ' No. 11,' and the Mercantile Fleet auxiliary Fauvetto ' have been sunk by mines off the East Coast. The losses were six officers and fifty-three men. Reports of the existence al mines in the North Sea have become familiar reading in the newspapers. The laying of mines indiscriminately, whether by submarines or by neutral vessels in German pay, is commonly, and perhaps rightly, taken to be a part of the German. prepara- tion for a great naval effort. We also take it to be a sign of German desperation ; and in this sense it is not a sign to be deplored. Every remaining scrap of the Hague Con- ventions signed by Germany as to the restrictions under which mines may be laid has been torn to shreds.