There can be no doubt whatever that these alleged torpedo-boats
were phantoms of the brain. Possibly the Russians mistook the carriers and the church and hospital boats which move up and down among the trawlers for Japanese torpedo-boats. Possibly they merely saw what did not exist, as men do in a panic on a dark night. In any case, the notion of Japanese torpedo-boats in the North Sea is ridiculous. They cannot flit unobserved over the water like the Flying Dutchman.' They would have been seen in some English, Danish, or Swedish port long ago. It has been suggested that, besides being very nervous, the Russian officers and men had been feasted too generously on the departure of the fleet, and that they were just in the con- dition when men who " see double " or think shadows are realities blaze away regardless of all consequences if they have firearms. That is no excuse, and cannot affect our demands, but it is an explanation of an otherwise inexplicable occurrence.
