A BITING SPEECH.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2754, 25 April 1916, Page 6

A BITING SPEECH.

(1R; BALFOUR ON MR! CHURCHILL ' ' EX-FIRST LORD RAKED FORE AND AFT BRIEF REJOINDER (From the "Daily Mail's)! Special Report.) . ' London,--March 8. :Mr. Balfour; -to • .the:, obvious • satisfaction 'of'''Ministerialists',' and'in particular of the Unionists, delivered a crushing rejoinder to Mr. Churchill to-night.. ; For three-quarters of an hour his stinging, phrases flew about the oars of Mr. Churchill, who sat in gloom); isolation in" oiie corner of the Opposition .front . bench:'v.There was. scorn in Mr. Balfour's - sentence,; when lie re-;, fcrrpil to Mr. Churchill's speech as, ono ;reqiiiring./"briefs.notice;''. . r . It was . .a ; ' spe^fcht ;'" uiifbrtiiriat b J.ini; form? 'in; ; sufistincd.",-, J (^nhatiij^'^lifijs^J??!?? 4 ; ' cheer?;) Mr., Churcmll : '/strove ip aroiiso: BoiiKK'j"mTsoyijigßj. and tlio strength, of'the Fleet and'the'energy ; i>f .the .present Board of Admiralty." •. *The allegations had been denied beforehand in. the .speech he (Mr. Balfour) made, .but of course' Mr. Churchill's charges: had been framed before lie heard that speech. "There has been no breach of continuity, there has been 110 slackness ;ri. pressing on the con-' . struction of ships for naval purposes," repeated Mr. Balfour. ■ "As a, matter of fact "that construction has gone on at a rate which, if not as ' .rapid: as wo could' desire, is greater' than' lias yet' been attained by this <ir any other country." The Admiralty had not. siit down oontentedly ; in face of the difficulty of obtaining labour. Every effort i' hiid been made, to secure an improve-, jiient. A Monitor Revelation* "My right' hon. friend, speaking ,1 know not on wliut basis; inspired . I know not'by whom or whence, indulged yesterday' in a comparison between the work of the present: Board- and- the Board over which he presided, very much to'the disadvantage'of the former, and'lie gave as a crucial instance of: his, energy and our slackness tlio case of the monitors and the capital 'ships. He hintM that tho time might ' be approaching when this country might be in need of, a larger number of.- capital - ships, than it 'possesses, owing to the fact that our enemies may have been building _ in ■ .the interval. Compare that, he said, with the energy, the speed, the push, tlie drive—(some laughter)—which animated the .last Board; which created these monitors in six months. '_ _ • _ (. "The .illustration is singularly .infelicitous from his. point ■ of view. -Why have not these Dreadnought ships been completed as soon as h;jd leen hoped? He and hi3;Board, in .order to make the : monitors, -used the guns and the gun- ; mountings which had been designed for capital'ships." (Cheers.) , "Why, the guns came'from America!" broke in Sir Arthur Markhanu . , "There is more than one monitor," answered Mr. Balfour suavely, repeat--iiig. that tlieie were ' guns, in ■ monitors which '' were 'designed - for.' Dreadnought ships. "Mr. Churchill takes the credit for having-hurried on-, the monitors,-and blames us for the delay, in the capital ships! -\"The monitors had proved of the'greatest value for certain purposes, but' added not a tittle to the strength'of tlie .Grand Fleet,'with which they were not intended to work. To. take guns and gun-mountings from a capital ship and put them into a" monitor may or may not .bo xight, but it deliberately, woakens your Grand Fleet. Haste Spells Waste. "I am not' in- the least pessimistic about'the strength of the Grand Fleet," ho added emphatically. "I don't .suggest it has been dangerously weakened by -the policy' "of monitors."Sir. • Churchill'had not done' wrong in ereat,jing ■ monitors—"this rather':,'• abnormal, fancy_ kind of vessel," as Mr, Balfour Baid in somewhat mincing language— hub lie pleaded for consistent argument. Mr.'Churchill had boasted of the con6trjictioh of a fleet of monitors supplied with guns partly from; the Grand Fleet and partly from Amerioa in six months. "Really," said; Mr: Balfoury. jn; comment, <! the case of the monitors has shown that liurryandpiish and all the great qualities 'which the late Board arrogates to itself and denies to it's successors—(laughter)—may sometimes be pushed to an undue extent. So hasty was the design'of some of these vessels, so ill were they contrived'to carry out their purpose that even now it. _has not been found possible : to use some of them, and they are in process of being, modelled, or' remodelled, so: as to make them suitable for this amphibious wartare." Mr. Balfour said he made no charges against the late Board! ' Risks must be run. "In ; somo of ..the destroyers that have boen- finished- under the present Board it has been found that undue ■ haste, in ~construction,: has really led 'to delay in;;speed, -and if you press; on. everything and allow neither ' the; de-;' ' signer nor the contractor to have a : pause you may, get .a good ' : vessel quickly or you may get an in-;' different vessel; You may or you may not have wasted both; time and money." Whispering Rumour, After, an ironical .reference, to Mr. Churchill's performance of;the" "congenial task of" showing how'well;he-had done and how ill his successors had. done,-' Mr. Balfour remarked that the matter had a more serious aspect. "To me it seems that this deliberate desire to suggest doubts, alarms. and fears'; . among a public who cannot know intimately all the facts of ' the case-r ] ("Hear,' hear")—is really acting against" the public interest," said Mr. Balfour,' and loud Ministerialist cheers sounded. ("Tho- old tale," interjected Sir Arthur. Markham, adding a reference to munitions.) "It is a much less serious attack upon public policy"" to suggest suspicions which really. 011 examination ■ have no foundation, at all than to suggest' suspicions, fears, and misgivings Vhich have a foundation. It is one of jhe cases in which the greater the truth W greater the injury to the public. . Therefore I admit that in. the'charges which my right hon. friend as' levelled against the present Board of Admiralty 110 has not done nearly ,tho same inlury to the publio interest as he would have done supposing his charges had been well founded." , ' Some laughter greeted this satirical compliment. Mr. Balfour continued giarcly: "Supposing somebody in August,* 1914, had gone about whispering and spreading rumours, oven making public speeches,, in. ji'Jiifh it was said that it was all very well to be happy about the Fleet, tliat it was perfectly ; true' that the Admiralty had with admirable promptitude brought their Fleet into its war stations at the very mo- ■ ment required, and that the Fleet had a margin of safety in excess, of any Fleet that could be brought against it, but that the Admi&ilty responsible had not: got at that time a single naval base on the whole of the east coast which was safe from- submarine attack, and that a good many of the trade routes of the world were being most imperfectly policed by fast cruisers I . "Both those statements would have been true, and therefore anybody who had gone about raising these alarms among the population would have been guilty of the fault of which I speak in - its greatest magnitude. , That would have been an unfoTgiveable offence. You

would have done no good and you would have seriously alarmed the public mind, bub everybody knows it was true. Everybody knows that it was a fact and cverybodv knows that was the icsponsh bility of tho Board of Admiralty which had to conduct the naval operations in the early days of the war. "My right hon. friend has not done that. .He has simply- suggested slackness, indifference, want of push and drive—things which cannot be provedor disproved in the simple form in which the statements I have just made can bo X>roved or disproved." Tf the Navy now was not sufficient to secure national safety, Mr. Balfour went on, it never had been. We were very much stronger than wo were at the beginning of the war ,and stronger than si's months ago. Still, war was an uncertain affair in thtise days of submarines and mines, and ho would make no boast; only he would say that the Navy was strong enough to face aiiy evert attack that was likely to be made. Lord Fisher. Passing .011 to the latter part of Mr. ChurchilPs speech, Mr. Balfour said its conclusion .must have Jjeen hoard by everybody with "profound stupefaction!". He often astonished the House, but never so much as when ho camo down and explained that the remedy for all our ills so far as the Navy is conowned is to get. rid of Sir ITenry Jackson and to put in his place Lord Fisher. He has,never made the smallest concealment, either in public or in private, of what 110 thought of Lord Fisher. (Laughter.) Certainly the impression ,we all had of what he thought of _ Lord Fisher is singularly unlike tlio picture [ that we, should ourselves have drawn,' 1; uninspired,' as to the character of this saviour of his country. (Laughter.) ~ "Mat did. he say when lie made us what, at the time,' wo thought was liia farewell speech—(renewed Jaughter)— when lie exchanged a political for a military career? He told ns that tho First Sea Lord, Lord Fislierj had not given him, when he was serving in the .Admiralty, with him, either, clear guidance before the event or the firm support after it' which he was entitled to expect. That speech was not made in the irritation which, might have been excusable in the ' midst, of a political crisis such as that which accompanied my right hon. friend's resignation at the Admiralty and tho resignation of Lord Fisher. My right lion, friend had six months in which to meditate over liis : relations with Lord' Fisher before ho made that considered judgment, and everybody knows .that his speeches are not unpremeditated effusions, but that lie takes care to weigh and balance every word which he litters.

"He had said that the First Sea Lord did not give him either the cleai guidance or. the firm support which he had a "tight to.expect, biit in the opportunity for caim meditation which the front apparently gives' his mind was cleared. : (Laughter.) The great ancestor of my right hon. friend, the first Duke of Marlborough, was always supposed to be very cool and collected, more master of himself—(laughter)— amid the din of battle than here in the calmer occupations of peace—(renewed laughter)—arid perhaps my right hon. friend shares this as an hereditary peculiarity. "My right 11011. friend told us yesterday that he arid Lofd Fisher parted on' 1 a great enterprise, on which the Government had decided, and to which they had been .committed,: and in which the fortunes of a:;striiggling and ill-sup-ported Army were already involved. 'I should therefore,' he goes on, 'have re-" sisted on public grounds the return of Lord Fisher to tho Admiralty, and I have on several occasions expressed this opinion in the strongest terms to the'-Prime Miriister'and' the First Lord of the Admiralty.' What does . that statement mean? It means, when my right honourable friend and Lord Fisher were colleagues at the Admiralty and when the Admiralty ■ were taking part in this difficult enterprise of the tiailipoli Peninsula, and when the fortunes of tho sister Service, ill supported, wore. already involved, that then, in his opinion, he could not count oil the suppqrt of Lord Fisher, and he would have resisted to tho utmost allowing him to come back to. the Admiralty to share in the responsibility for the Navy. "'I don't know what Lord Fisher thought about that,' but 1 know that if any friend of-mine had made it about me I should have" regarded it as the deepest insult. . (Cheers.) , 'It means, because Lord Fisher differed—that is tlie way I look at- Lord Fisher, in the opinion of my right honourable friend,'disapproved of the expedition to, Gallipoli, that therefore, although" the : Army was involved, he could not be trusted to carry'out effectively and vigorously the operations necessary in order to support the Army, rf . that were true it would be almost high treason! I don't for a moment believe that it is true. (Cheers.) But if it were true, what are we to think of Lord Fisher—one of the most distinguished members of his great, profession which any of us have seen in our. lifetime? 'But all that,' saj's the right honourable gentleman, 'is over. If it was not over I, would not think of sug. gesting that Lord Fisher should go bact.- 'But it is all over. Therefore we may suppose in future Lord Fisher and the Board .of Admiralty will act-in harmony!'. - Lord Fisher's loyalty may be coun'te'd'upon!' "The Only Man to Work With." ' "Whoever; would recommend-to the 'Government, the acceptance : of the seryices. ofj.a, great j>ubiui 1 servant on the grovmd fiat; he could not be trusted to „ao ; ins woi\k when he disapproved of the "policy dt'vthe fcJojsrnTrjent, .but-could :;be; trusted' .to'carvi; ii-gut when he approved of k .the policy? It is.a charge wllich I : should have thought Lord lienor nvould-have'a right most bitterly to re, sent, and which; for anything 1 know, lie does most bitterly resent. , _ "My ;right hon. -Intend-told the Prime .Minister when ; Princo Louis; of Battenberg; was the First. Sea Lord that 1 the only man he would worJi with was Lord Fisher. '.Well, we seem dogged by ill fortune! Bub .isn't it a most, extraordinary and unhappy coincidence that the only man- with whom my right hon.' friend could consent to work at ;ihe.;"Admiralty was; the distinguished sailor who, after five months, icfused to work with my right hon. friend?! (Laughter.) Why did my right Ken. friend put:forward Lord Fisher as the only 'man to remedy the defects of the present Board of Admiralty? I do not know whether he is under the, impression that if the change he desires to force on the Government is accepted 1 should still remain a Minister of tlie Government. (Cheers.) But Jot i>? suppose that I was Dicpared to take my Board of Admiralty from tho right lion, gentleman. . (Laughter.) "Why does he suppose that Lord Fisher would behave differently to- me from Jthe manner in which he declares Lord Fisher behaved to him? Is it my jqerit? (Laughter.) Ain I more happily gifted in the way of working with people? - (Laughter.) The right hon. gentleman, who could not get on with Ix>i;d Fisher—(laughter)—l won't say that Lord Fisher could not get on with him—(renewed laughter)—who, according to him neither supported him nor guided him, is, nevertheless the man who ought to be given as a guide and a support to anybody who happens to hold at this moment the responsibility of the First Lord of tho Admiralty! (Laughter.) It is a paradox of the wildest and most extravagant kind. . "I am prepared to endorse neither my right hon., friend's opinion of Lord Fisher a® it was six months ago, 1101 his opinion of him as it may. lw to-day. (Laughter.) They seem to me to be totally inconsistent. It is 'possible that both are remote from the truth. (Loud laughter.) Now my right hon. friend coroo- forward with the suggestion that

Lord Fisher should go to tho Admiralty. There is another form in which it could be put which is equally veracious, which is that Sir Henry Jackson should go from the Admiralty. Sir Henry Jackson is an admiral no doubt who is less known to the general publio than Lord Fisher. Ho has not been, liko Lord Fisher, in the public eye for many years. His name is not familiar to newspaper readers. He has not been associated with tho groat'and dramatic changes in naval policy. ■ "But I think, if you asked competent judges in tlio Navy—("Hear, hear") — they would all say that a more admirable officer than Sir Henry Jackson, and quo better fitted to occupy the place which he now v .occupies, could not be found. By character,, by experience, by merit, and by tradition, he is the man who commands himself to naval opinion in this country.' His experience lias been great. Ho has been head of the "War College, 110 has been Chief of the Staff, he has been Controller, he was designated Admiral of tho Mediterranean Fleet when war broke out, and wherever he is 'known he is respected and admired. ■ "For Mr. Churchill to come to this House, and without .evidence or argument of any. kind, suggest to the Government, that this great public servant should be turned adrift in order to introduce ill his place a man-y-of whom I will never say anything which does 11'ot ' indicate my enormous admiration for his great services, but who, according to the right-'lion, .gentleman himself,' has not done that which it .is the first duty of j a First Sea Lord-to do—namely, to give guidance and advice to the First Lord, his colleague—that seems to me to be; the most amazing proposition that was ever laid before the Efonse. (Cheers.) That is the way it strikes me. I should regard myself as contemptible beyond powers of expression if I were to yield an inch to the demands of such a kind made in such a way. (Cheers.) "If it .was not possible ill his day to get guidanco from the First Sea Lord,. I have had a happier fate. I have received both guidanco and support from 'the present) First_ Sea Lord. I have no right to dictate, I have no desire to dictate either to my colleagues, to the House, or to the, country, but so far as I am concerned nothing would induce me to yield to such a demand made in such a way." (Loud cheers.) A Feeble Reply. Colonel Churchill replied in ft speech of seven minutes' duration. "Mr. Balfour," ho said, 'is a master of Parliamentary sword-play, and his long standing in the House enables him to throw ridicule, especially on one so much younger than himself. , ' "Ho has employed all the old familiar Parliamentary devices. He stated the charges made in a greatly exaggerated f'orni, said [ had charged the Admiralty with nndnly weakening the Grand Fleet, and so 011. On those points I. was necessarily vague. I think that in his reply Mr. Balfour lias lifted more of the veil than was desirable. My feeling of disquietude arises from a doubt as to whether tlio battleship and .destroyer building programmes are being worked to the revised dates that have been arranged. "I very carefully said, and I repeat, that there, was 110 reason to, suppose ' that our margin of strength at tlie present time was not sufficient, and that there was 110 cause for alarm, but the greatest efforts must be made to carry out the programme at the highest speed. Mr. Balfour ought not to be unduly annoyed or 'vexed by what I said. A speech is a very small thing, but a failure at sea is vital. Don't lot them ho'too touchy on the Treasury Bench in matters of that kind." All he wanted was to sound in time a. note,of warning and "so far from having gone beyond what the facts justify, I have been restrained' only by the strictest regard to secrecy in the public .interest from making my statement in a stronger form, and that is well known to the Treasury Bench." He made Mr. Balfour a present of all that could be gathered from that fertile field—"my relations with Lord Fisher. But if we could associate, somehow.or other, the driving forco of Lord Fisher with the carrying out of his ideas, did anybody doubt that great public advantage would arise from it F.