THE FIRST SEA LORD.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 520, 29 May 1909, Page 5

THE FIRST SEA LORD.

• WILL HE RESIGN? A GREAT SAILOR'S INDISCRETION. " REPORTED RETIREMENT. (BI TELKQIiAPII— FBRSS ASSOCIATION—COPIBIGHT.) ..../.. : London,,Moy 27 ..: It. is persistently, reported Wiat Admiral Sir John Fisher, First Sea Lord of tho .Admiralty, will retire from that position in October. , : ", ■ .;. ■ ;...-.:':. ' .'.-' • [A London cablegram of May .: 20 ; stated: "The Admiralty has printed l and privately circulated a letter by Captain Bacon reflecting on Lieutenant Carlyon Bellairs's capability as ,au officer. The doouineiit was made public after Lieutenant Bellairs had made attacks on tha Admiralty in the' House and in' various publications. In the House of .Commons', Mr. M'Kenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, is nightly heckled on the subject, and has apologised on behalf of himself and Sir John Fisher, the--First Sea Lord," As secretary, of 'the Liberal Navy Committee in the House of 'Commons, Lieutenant Carlyon Bellairs, though a Liberal, has been a frequent critio "of ,Admiralty policy. At a meeting last Mardh at Charing. Cross,' under the auspices" of the Navy League, he was the mover of tho proposal that eight Dreadnoughts'should be .begun and completed at the earliest possible date. Subsequently it was announced that the Liberal party: organisation- had expelled -.- Mm. Lieutenant Bollairs then obtained, at. a rneeting of his King's Lynn constituents, a unanimous resolution of confidence, which deolared .that the anxiety in the country and the Empire regarding naval supremacy had proved his warnings to be right, and that he had earned the gratitude of his countrymea.l.