NO CHANGES REQUIRED AT THE ADMIRALTY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 169, 28 April 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

NO CHANGES REQUIRED AT THE ADMIRALTY.

THE LORD FISHER SUiOUR,

SHALL WE HAVE THE FORMER FIRST LORD BACK AT THE ADMIRALTY?

BY ONE WHO KNOWS lll.M

(Tile agitation to have Lord Fisher brought back to the Admiralty culminated last week, says the "Illustrated Sunday Herald," in a severe criticism of the former First >jea Lord pnbbshed by the "Morning Post" under the hee.d, " Who is Lord Fisher?"

irucan before lie resigned. It is said lie had been warned they were coming, and he delayed authorising the measures which would have dealt with, them in advance until it was too late to prevent a certain amount of damage being done.

Yesterday the same paper published tin; follow.ng letters from Admiral of the Fleet Gerard X. Xoel (retired), Admiral A. W. Moore (retired), ami Admiral G. Atkinson Willcs (retired): "We believe that the large majority of the Naval Service have perfect confidence in Mr. Balfour as First Lord and \\\\ naval colleagues, especially Sir Henry Jackson, the First Sea Lord. "Holding this opinion, we would urge the public not to be led astray by this intrigue, but to continue tration their support and conlidence.")

AS hat is Lord Fisher's own position in all tins business? Though these people who have been conducting this campaign are generally understood to have Leer at one time personally in touch with him it is impossible to believe that he can understand what thev

are do.lg

Loid Fisher lias amongst his many excellent qualities that of being a "realist." He hates sentiment rid humbug. He likes plain speaking. No one knows better than he that there are on the active list of the Navy scores of men from Sir John Jellicoe downwards, men in great part trained by himself, any one of which could safely be entrusted with the direction of the war at sea. He knows what these men are doing, though the public doesn't, and because of his knowledge he is not likely to support the preposterous theory that the great naval traditions and experience of England are only to be found in one man, r.nd that man himself.

A fi w months ago wo wore all being invited to discuss (by certain Liberal papers) a Cabinet "plot" to remove the Prime Minister and put one of his colleagues in his place. We are now witnessing an exactly similar plot, conducted by these same papers, to remove the Board of Admiralty and put up Lord Fisher as a kind o naval dictator. Those who are behind the scenes know very well what is going on ; they know that scare articles about the 17inch gun, eulogies of Lord Fisher, covert hints that the Navy is inactive, demands for an attack on the German coast and so on, can hardly all be appearing by chance or coincidence, but that they might be taken as part of a policy to prepare the way tor Lor.; Fisher's return. The object essentially is to raise a popular outcry, for amongst people who understand what. is. do'ng and who know something of the amazing developments in strength and efficiency taking place behind the veil of silence there is no dissatisfaction with the Admiralty whatever. There is the most complete confidence in the direction of the Fleet and a very deep gratitude for it.

He knows that every line that his eulogists are writing is by implication unfair to the Navy and to naval officers. And then he knows himself better than his friends do. He is 70. Y> ben in November a year ago he came back to duty it is an open secret that he frit the strain heavily. He found he cou : d not profitably do more than a few hours' work at a stretch. He rested invariably in the afternoon; lie 1 ad to make it a rule again to rest after dinner.

THE NAVY'S POSITION. Only by those means could ho husband liis strength sufficiently to keep oven partially npace with the routine work demanded of the First Sea Lord. Perhaps it was because lie knew that the burden of work was ton heavy that lio persisted in his resignation last May after the Cabinet had been remodelled and the nominal reason for nis going bad disappeared. The Navy's position hi flti.s mat-

THE NAVY'S WORK. That is why the Fisher "plotters" do not address themselves to the Cale'not or to people who know what tlv Navy is doing. They deliberately take advantage of the fact that the people whom they are addressing do lint know much about the ceaseless activity of the Navv and can onlv judge bv results.

fee is clear. It. admires Lord Fisher ;is a distinguished sailor, though if is far from believing that much ii;:.? he (iuricl through in ids vig- ; ions and niasterfid way will stand <i]o < ( > S f 0 f permanence.

One would have thought iho results sufficiently striking in n country where people are spending more money than in times nf peace, so well protected at sea that we actually have to restrict our own imports and perform for ourselves the very work winch it was the enemy's chief object to achieve! But there it is: w<> have even been asked to believe that when Lord Fisher resigned in May last lie took with him the secret, so to speak, of the anti-submarine r amnai<.'ii, and lhat had ho stayed wo should have bad no losses in 'he Mediterranean ! That is. as they say. the edge, the extreme limit.

We shall certainly after the war reestablish our squadrons in distant waters which he withdrew, and which, if they had been present, would have prevented battles like Corone! and oxp'oits like that of the Eniden. We should eoriimly have been in a better position for patrols if the \essels lie •'scrapped'' had been retained for use. We shall certainly return to the policy of building numerous squadrons of light cruisers which he discarded. But no one will ever forget to give him the undivided credit for his unparalleled services as a designer of ships. The Dro.u.nought, the I ion. the I l ] submarine are the leaves of his laurels. Let him rest on them.

As it happens iho (irst Gorman submarine arrived in the .Mc<lit?r-