lo8 The Dogger Bank Incident [1904 



fleet issuing from the Baltic, and bound for Japan, has at midnight 

 attacked the English fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank, sunk one or 

 two of their craft, killed two fishermen and wounded others. The 

 newspapers treat the affair as a mistake, or panic on the part of the 

 Russian officer in command. I do not take this view. The Russian 

 aristocracy is immensely irritated just now against us English and is in 

 the condition of mind when a man slaps another's face, without regard 

 to the consequences. I am a man of peace, but under the circumstances 

 were I in Arthur Balfour's place, I would stand on no ceremony, but 

 should order out the Channel fleet, and bring the Russian squadron into 

 Spithead. The commanding officer was in all probability drunk at the 

 time, but that is no excuse. [I wrote in the same sense to George and 

 he answered me briefly thus : ' Many thanks for your letter on the 

 North Sea outrage; it was a shocking affair. We cannot contemplate 

 the high seas of the world becoming a vast imitation of a running 

 camp poker saloon.'] 



" 2gth Oct. — The Russian Government has given in, thanks to the 

 firmness of our Cabinet. The Russian officers are to be submitted to 

 an International Inquiry, and punished if found guilty, and in the 

 meanwhile our Baltic Fleet is to stay where it is at Vigo. Arthur Bal- 

 four has certainly managed things dexterously and well. Whether the 

 punishment will be very real I doubt, but the main object is already 

 accomplished, that of showing it is impossible to do these things with 

 impunity. 



" 2nd Nov. — With Madeline Adeane to see Bernard Shaw's new 

 play, ' John Bull's other Island.' It is a roaring burlesque, the most 

 amusing I ever listened to. I laughed till I cried, sitting in the upper- 

 most tier of the gallery, for we could get no other seats. Shaw has 

 certainly made an epoch on the English stage, using it also as a plat- 

 form for his political fancies. In this play he hits all round, making all 

 the Parliamentary parties equally ridiculous, including the Irish. 



" The arrangement of the Dogger Bank affair turns out less rosy 

 than Arthur Balfour announced it to be. The Czar has declared pub- 

 licly his belief in the torpedo story told by the Russian officers, and 

 the Russian Fleet, with its Admiral Rojesvenski, has left Vigo for 

 Japan. It will probably end in our having to pocket our slap in the 

 face, and perhaps in having the torpedo story saddled on us in history. 



" nth Nov. — I leave to-day for Egypt, after having taken all my 

 male servants down to Shipley to vote for Tumour, the Tory candidate." 



At Gros Bois from 14th November to 20th November. 



" iyth Nov. — The great talk here at Gros Bois is of General Andre's 

 resignation, a matter of domestic politics. They take no interest here 

 in the Baltic Fleet outrage, or much in the Russo-Japanese War, Wag- 



