Sin,—May I crave of your courtesy to correct the signature
of my letter in the Spectator of November 12th? Illegibility leaves the fault entirely with me. You say, Sir, that "the fact that Russia is at war with an enemy fourteen thousand miles away cannot give her a right to fire at large on any- thing which looks like a torpedo-boat." Most true. But given honest belief that Japanese torpedo-boats were about to attack—an inexplicable belief, but apparently vouched for by Lord Lansdowne—sailors will agree that the firing by the Russian battleships was not only defensible, but imperative. In similar circumstances—that is to say, in the belief that hostile torpedo-boats were sighted and within range—a British battleship would not wait for recognition signals to be answered before opening fire. On the morrow of the Dogger Bank disaster the Times spoke of the attack as "wanton," and " wanton " it remains to "the man in the street." You have permitted me to adduce reasons why a more charitable judgment is possible ; why it is conceivable, and not unlikely, that the firing was due to a mistake very common at sea, and from which the most experienced of our own seamen are not exempt. The International Commission will give us the truth. Meantime, we shall do well not to forget your re- minder that "there are two sides to every controversy," and that, "however good one's own case may be, it is never right to assume that there is nothing to be said in the way of explanation by the other side."—I am, Sir, &c.,
GEORGE WEDLAXE.
Hawthorn House, Catford, S.E.
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