In the House of Commons on Thursday Mr. Churchill made
an announcement whieh has been received with deep sorrow. The battleship 'Bulwark,' which was lying at Sheerness, blew up at 7.53 on the morning of that day. "The Vice- and Rear-Admirals who were present reported their con- viction that it was an internal magazine explosion which rent the ship asunder." The loss of the ship will not, of course, affect the military position, but the loss of men is very severe —only fourteen being saved out of a ships company of between seven and eight hundred. That so many gallant men ready to fight and to ran all the risks of the sea in their country's cause should thus have perished has been most poignantly felt by the country. It has refused, and rightly refused, to find any consolation in the thought that a vessel of comparatively antiquated build would hardly be missed from the fighting line. We can build plenty more ships, and, thank Heaven, we can find plenty more sailors, but these facts cannot alter what we feel in regard to the crew of the 'Bnlwark: If the disaster was the result of an internal explosion, it may have been due to chemical action, to carelessness, or to treachery.
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