29 OCTOBER 1904, Page 2

The comments of the world on the outrage have been

nearly unanimous The French papers of all shades of opinion, except the strictly reactionary, deplore the incident, and pro- nounce the Baltic Fleet as at present governed a danger to all nations. They are, in fact, so condemnatory of the Russian Admiral's action that they expect St. Petersburg to terminate all danger of war by speedily accepting the British terms. The Austrian papers express the same view in even stronger language, and so do the German free papers, most of which attribute the assault on the fishing fleet to unjustifiable "nervousness." The " inspired " journals in Germany are, however, more reticent, and describe the outrage as "a very deplorable event, but not a political incident." The American journals are disposed to treat it as an act of lunacy, and to consider that the Baltic Fleet must be forced back to the Baltic in the general interest of mankind. There appear, in fact, to be no dissentient voices, and it is to be hoped, though the general voice of civilisation will be hidden from the Russian people, that it will not be without its influence upon the Czar and the group which, under him, rules Russia.