NAVAL COOK’S LAPSE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 122, 16 February 1935, Page 18

NAVAL COOK’S LAPSE

Trial By Court Martial

_ Tried by coprt-martial at the Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth, WarrantCook Ernest Bertram Johnson, of H.M.S. Victory, put forward the plea that he had been over-zealous in his desire to become an efficient officer.

Johnson was charged with stealing 31b. of fresh beef, 111 b. of white sugar, lib. of butter, 10oz. of sausages, Soz. of fish, 13 eggs, and one tin of fruit- salad on November 30, 1934.

Three other charges related to the same articles of food and others to orders given by Johnson to subordinates to obtain for him on certain days articles of food, knowing that provisions were to be drawn from Government stocks. The articles were found in an at-tache-case in Johnson’s car when he was leaving the dockyard. Johnson told the Court that as a technical expert in cooking he was expected to be able to answer any question. Owing to the fact that the cookery school was overloaded, it was impossible for him to gain the necessary experience to justify his inclusion on the board to examine ratings. It was impossible for an officer to cook at the school. In cooking there were failures, and a technical know-

ledge was required in order to be able to assess not only good results, but also the bad results, and how they were produced.

He thought that by taking a few things home he could make as many mistakes as he liked without embarrassing himself, or the ratings knowing anything about it.

He had worked at home in highclass cookery, but the expenses incurred were too large, and that was why he ordered certain articles to be put aside for him. Johnson added that he had always taken pride in the fact that his superior officers had been able to rely upon him, and the technical knowledge he had gained was not merely at the expense of the Crown, but at his own expense in order that he might become a more efficient officer. Commodore G. Layton, prosecuting, reminded the Court that it was particularly hard to detect such an offence in an establishment of the size of the R.N. Barracks, but it was easy for anyone under the cloak of an officer to perpetrate It. Johnson was found guilty on five of seven charges, and was sentenced to be dismissed from the Service.