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The Attorney General
ilay it please your Worship: That is
all the evidence that I know of that would assist your Worship
I occupy
in this inquiry. Of course, as your orship is aware, almost a semi judicial position, and I have placed before your Worship all the evidence that I know of that will throw any light on the cause of this man's death.
For
I do not propose to analyse the evidence in detail. reasons which your Worship will have no doubt seen, the diver- genoes between the statements of the witnesses engaged in the Examination Service and in the Battery and that of the Captain
of the ship, have been greater than I anticipated.
At the beginning I said there had not beer ruch divergence between them, but the Captain of the ship now tella & story which I submit is a quite umbelievable ore; and that is clear,
The first is that the first I think, from two considerations.
shot fired, according to his account of it, was fired aft at the bridge. Lieutenant Brewater, of course, has said that the first ahot was fired in front of the bows of the ship, and there car be no doubt whatever that no officer in command of an Examina- tion Battery would fire the first silot over the ship and not in
front of it.
Frat
The other point is, according to the Captain's story, he had stopped his engines, gone astern and given three blaste on the whistle to indicate that he was going astern, still the fort went on firing. That is absolutely incredible, and showe
his evidence is unreliable, The fact is, as he says himself,
He that he paid no attention to the flags or the first alote. hoard no sounds, saw no signala, did not look at the flaga, and
the result was that the "Shikoku Haru" oano on in disregard of
those signals, approaching nearer and nearer the
the harbour.
entrance to