OPPONENTS RECONCILED

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1928, Page 9

OPPONENTS RECONCILED

COURT-MARTIAL AFTERMATH SHAKING OF HANDS TOO LATE. ' JHE RIGHT TO MAKE COMPLAINTS. By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. A- ad N.Z. London, April 9. “I did it because I regret the pergonal attacks on Admiral Collard, as there has never been any personal mallee between us. I consider he has suffered heavily enough already.” This Is the explanation of his friendly farewell to Admiral Collard which Captain Dewar gave to an Evening Standard repreesntative on board the Ranpura today. Admiral Mark Kerr, in an interview, •rid that it was a welcome reconciliation of the parties, but it was a pity that they did not shake hands before the court of inquiry. It would have Saved the Navy’s washing dirty linen in public. ‘‘Personal reconciliation does not affect the need shown by the court-martial of safeguarding the right of complaint,” said Commander Bellairs. “If high officers like Captain Dewar and Commander Daniels are not permitted to complain without risking their careers, what is the position of the lower ranks’” PERSONAL VIEW OF COLLARD. “FAIREST AND SQUARES? OFFICER” Some interesting sidelights on the character of Rear-Admiral Collard are contained in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald from a contributor, who says: In those far away days of the “on the knee” riots in Portsmouth, England. I was a member Of Collard’s gunnery class, and I remember that while the Press of England was trying him for that famous order, his sense of humour did not desert him for a single moment. He was, in his physical aspect, as much like a cherub as it was possible for a man ever to be and, apropos of this cherubic charm, he made three drawings of himself while he awaited his trial. Drawing No. 1 presented a cherub, wing-bedecked, with Collard’s face and the caption “as my mother sees me.” No. 2 showed the same cherub .with a mouth as wide as a barn door, from which issued the famous, or, as some thought, infamous, order “on the knee.” Drawing No. 3 showed “Mr. Cherub” wearing heavy sea boots and With them kicking sailor men all round the decks of a dreadnought. This last Jie called “as the public sees me.” The general public should know that ilie “on the knee” order was a very ordinary one, well'understood of sailors,, and it was given usually when men standing 10 deep perhaps, were listening to instructions from any officer. ”’he men in the front rows were ordered on the knee to make it possible for those behind to see and hear their instructor plainly. It had no other significance. On the day of Collard’s fiasco, in the front rank of the squad was a great, drunken lout named Moody, and he it was who caused all the trouble when he declared that “he would not bend his knee to the Virgin Mary, much less would he do so to any gunnery instructor,” and the riot was on. The order was insisted Upon, and later the squad was dismissed. That night, after much beer and inflammatory oratory, the boys proceeded to tear things up by the roots. I was among the bluejackets sent on the double to help quell the resulting disorder, and I shall not ever forget seeing Collard, a very small man, walking through that bunch of fighting and mad heroes utterly unafraid, and what is more, utterly unmolested. He showed that night that he was a real captain of men. He was untouched, as I say, but a warrant officer- named Green received a blow on the side of his head with a bottle that put him out of Commission for a fewdays.

Collard was sent to Whale Island to • wait his court-martial, and any man who knew the rights of the affair was allowed to see him there and so aid him in preparing his defence. I watched hundreds of men form a line as long as a city block who were all anxious to save him from being made the victim of a blasphemous rowdy. Well, truth prevailed, as it has a habit of doing, and Collard was freed to become an admiral of the greatest navy in the whole world. Green recovered, and Moody served five years for his little burst of mutiny.

The consensus of opinion among those who knew and served under Collard was that he was the fairest, squares!, and hardest of officers; he played no favourites. “Cook’s son, duke’s son,” were all one to him, and his record as a gunnery instructor was a particularly fine one. He turned out great gunners, sparing them nothing of hard, grilling work; he took them into hard endeavour after perfection, but he went with them into it, like the game little fighting cock lie was, and apparently still is. I, of course, know nothing of the merits of the present case, but I dare swear that Collard is still as just, as hard and as fair as in those old days in Portsmouth. Maybe he will dig out those old sketches and over them grin sardonically while he is being “tried” once more in the press of the country he has served so Jong and well.