But the Germans, at the very beginning of the war, outraged neutral sentiment by employing ostensible merchant and passenger vessels, flying neutral flags, and without giving warning to the neutrals, in the deadly work of scattering mines indiscriminately in the open sea on the main lines of trade. They acted in direct contravention of the rules of war as previously accepted. These disguised mining vessels had traversed the trade routes as if pursuing peaceful purposes, thus enjoying the immunities which had always been accorded to innocent neutral vessels, and yet they had wantonly endangered the lives of all who traversed the sea, whether neutral or enemy. The Admiralty were soon able to declare publicly that this mine-laying under a neutral flag, as well as reconnaissance conducted by trawlers and even by hospital ships and neutral vessels, had become the ordinary methods of German naval warfare. The later history of the war shows how far the Germans were prepared to go in casting off any restraint in their efforts to do injury to their enemies. They compelled the British Admiralty to adopt counter-measures. For years past the Germans had devoted unremitting attention to the study and practice of mining and the production of very powerful types of mines. In that respect they were undoubtedly ready. The state of war between England and Germany began at 11 p.m. on August 4th, 1914, and on the morning of the next day German mines were being laid on the east coast of England. The _Königin Luise_, a former Hamburg-Amerika liner of 2,163 tons, was caught in the act, off the Suffolk coast, and was sunk by the light cruiser _Amphion_ and the Third Torpedo Flotilla. On the next day the _Amphion_ herself, the first British warship destroyed in the war, fell a victim to the mines she had laid. This disguised mine-layer had initiated a practice, which has since been many times followed in the war, of throwing mines overboard in the track of pursuing vessels. It was resorted to by the retreating Germans in the battle of the Dogger Bank. Here it may be remarked that the Germans have always claimed the right to subject every consideration to their necessity to win, though at The Hague Conference of 1907, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, the German delegate, said that conscience, good sense, and the duty imposed by the principles of humanity would constitute the most effective guarantee against abuse, and he proclaimed—“_je le dis à haute voix_”—that German naval officers would always fulfil “in the strictest fashion the duties which emanate from the unwritten law of humanity and civilisation.”