the vessel from the pirates who were in unlawful
por pasion of her. Had he abstained from so
doing the pirates would no doubt have profited
by his lunetivity to destroy the ship by fire,
in accordance with their usual practice in
cases where their operations were interfered with,
and with the threat which they had actually
made in the case of the "Irene". I have
already pointed out that it is probable that
the spread of the fire which shortly afterwards
broke out on the "Irene" was caused by the
pirates themselves, and that the loss of
immocent life which unfortunately cocurred was
due to a panic among the passengers. And in
view of the language which both r. wu and
Your Excellency have employed to describe the
action of the Commander of the submarine in opening
fire, it is material to point out that so far aa
His Majesty's Government are aware there is no
evidence that any of the passengers or crew of
the "Irene" received any injuries from shell fire.
76
If