Page:Heresies of Sea Power (1906).djvu/237

Rh At the same time the majority of the Commissioners regret that it did not occur to Admiral Rogestvensky, while going through the Straits of Dover, to inform the authorities of the neighbouring maritime Powers that, having opened fire in the vicinity of a group of trawlers, those boats of unknown nationality required assistance.

17. The Commissioners, in closing this report declare that their appreciations formulated therein are not in their spirit of a nature to cast any discredit either on the military value or the sentiments of humanity of Admiral Rogestvensky and of the personnel of his squadron.

The report was not over well received by public opinion in either England or Russia, and in concentrating attention upon this actual incident rather than in regarding it as a case for a ' precedent,' the civil population—which indirectly, by the constant expression of opinion, has much to do with the framing of International Law—showed itself singularly unable to grasp the importance of the problem.

The heated imagination of the captain of the Kamchatka most probably produced the entire incident,