'"A NAVAL SCANDAL."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 11 December 1912, Page 8

"A NAVAL SCANDAL."

CASE OF H.M.S. TORCH. "A naval scandal which caused Mr. Churchill obvious embarrassment," state 3 the London "Daily Mail" of November 1, "was ventilated last night in the House of Commons on the motion for the adjournment." Major Archer-Sheo called attention to the unseaworthy -condition in which H.M.S. Torch had been sent to sea from Sydney Dockyard, New South Wales, in April, 1911. Her bottom plates were corroded, he said, and had she met with heavy weather she would in all probability have never been heard of asain. He declared that the lives of 108 officers and men had been placed in jeopardy through the rigid economy which tho Admiralty forced upon the Sydney Dockyard, preventing the vessel obtaining necessary repairs. Mr. Churchill, who spoke in a very minor, key, and in halting phrases, confessed that the Admiralty were not satisfied with the result'of ..their, inquiries into: the case. The Torch was an old ship, she was hurriedly commissioned, and the full extent of her deterioration was not realised. He blamed the officials whoa duty it was to examino tho ship periodically for -allowing her to be sont to sea. It was a matter .of which official notice had-been taken. Lord Charles Beresford complained that the answer was lame and halting. The lives of the officers and crew had been in jeopardy. I'Fancy a ship gomg to sea and the screw dropping off, he exclaimed. • "Fancy a ship goius to sea with ' the plating underneath the wood sheathing m such a condition that you could bend it. I have handled sonwof it. The whole thing is a disgrace to the Admiralty." He pointedly asked the First Lord of the Admiralty that a full and public inquiry should be held. . Cries of "Answer," "Answer, were shouted to Mr. Churchill, but he remained seated. .'",,., , • i Sir George Toulmm, a Liberal, intervening, asked whether the Admiralty had inquired into the case and had brought home the responsibility to -anyone. u Here again, despite cries of "Answer from the Opposition, Mr. Churchill remained silent, and the rising of the House nt the expiration of the allotted half-hour closed the. incident.