The Board of Trade inquiry into the North Sea outrage
was opened at Hull on Tuesday before Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge and Mr. Butler Aspinall, K.C. The inquiry has been divided into two parts, the first dealing with the actual details of the incident, the second with the claims for compensation. The managing director of the company which owns the trawling fleet denied formally what no one believed possible, —the presence of munitions of war or Japanese officers aboard. The "vice-admiral" of the Gamecock fleet gave a vivid account of what happened on the night of the outrage. The search- lights made everything as clear as daylight, and the warships could have seen their numbers and build, quite apart from the signals which they made. "They had nothing to pelt back except a few haddocks." Till the Russians appeared no strange vessel had been seen by the trawlers. After evidence by naval [experts to elucidate some details of the occurrence, the evidence of the other skippers of the fleet was heard. There were natural discrepancies in the estimates given of the distance of the Russian vessels when firing com- menced, the highest estimate being half-a-mile. Some wit- nesses, particularly the skipper of the 'Moulmein,' testified to the presence of a warship, similar to those which had fired on them, in the neighbourhood several hours after the rest of the fleet had departed. On the whole, the inquiry is eliciting a very coherent and complete tale, which entirely disperses the wild legends about Japanese torpedo-boats or negligence on the part of the trawlers.
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