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Show Commander Sims s Case Editor of tho London Times. Sir E think it. must be evident, here as at home, that tho President has in llioted upon Commander Sims just so much censure as he was strictly obliged to, and no more. Nobody doubts that this American naval officer, in pledging his last dollar and drop of blood should England want them, said more than anv naval officer can properly say abroad. But, for all that, Commander Sims was tho voice of the American navy. Now that he has been rebuked for a technical techni-cal irregularity, and all official proprieties proprie-ties reasserted, the service ho did remains re-mains a leal service. 1 was not al. flic Guildhall, but T was at whnl I supnosod must have been a still moro striking .scene at a dinner of the St. George's Society in New York some years ago; a company half PJng-ish. PJng-ish. half American. There also a naval ofliccr came to the front. I will not mention his name, nor does it matter. He was not the regular speaker, but a substitute, improvised at the last moment. mo-ment. He told us he had been in Manila Ma-nila when tho Germans undertook to show Admiral Dewey how tho port he had conquered ought to bo governed. Things wero near the breaking point when Admiral Chichester took his English Eng-lish fleet, over and dropped anchor alongside tho American. Nothing was said. No message was sent to the Germans. But everybody understood un-derstood why the English had como and what they were ready to do, and It was this English fleet that made it clear to tho Hermans that Dewey was master In Manila waters. Then ho told the slory of the landing of a party of American officers in a South American port where lay an English Eng-lish cruiser. The Americans were attacked at-tacked bv the men on tho wharf and fighting 'for their lives. Two armed boat's crews, one English, one Amci-can, Amci-can, each with orders' not to bnu, lay off the pier-head. The midshipman commanding the English Eng-lish boat stood 11 as long as ho could, then he remarked to the American. "I sny. .lack. If you'll lot your men go, I'll lot mine." And they went. So far, fact. Then a vision: I sometimes Imagine a day may come when an English and an American fleet may find themselves within hail of each other and some I know not what hostile fleets going to quarters not very far off. And across the little Interval of cean between be-tween the. Kngllsh and Americaii 1 Kcem to hoar again a call from ono conning tower lo another: "I say, Jack. If you'll let your men go, I'll let mlno." You should have heard the cheers. f have some means of knowing what the feeling of American naval officers is like, and my belief is that it was truly expressed by Commander Sims at the Guildhall and by the American officer of-ficer who spoke at the St. George's dinner din-ner in New York. AN AMERICAN EXILE. January 11. , |