The Government has received a despatch from Colonel Neale ex-
plaining the disaster of Kagosima, which the official journals consider very triumphant. It would be, if it had anything to do with the accusation. Colonel Neale says the town holds 40,000
people instead of 180,000—a figure we took from the local accounts —that they all had orders to leave the town before the attack began, and that, by Japanese confession, the fire blazed so high because there was nobody left to put it out. That is pleasant reading to people who dislike useless slaughter ; but how much of all that did the Colonel know before the bombardment began ? The charge is one of carelessness about people's lives, and Colonel Neale replies by showing that his acts did not take so many as they naturally ought to have done. Suppose Smith fires into a crowd of children, and everybody ducks. Is Smith innocent ?
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