NAVAL INSUBORDINATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 09, 11 January 1908, Page 13

NAVAL INSUBORDINATION.

The incident at Portsmouth lepoited in Monday's papers furnishes a significant and disagreeable commentary on Sir John Fisher's optimistic speech at the Guildhall last Saturday. It appears that, in consonance with instructions from tho Admiralty, and by way of preparing to do honour to the Kaiser, an order was given to all the ships in the Channel Pleet to "be out of routine '•' — i.e., to suspend' drill, etc. — and paint ships after the manoeuvres. On 4th November RearAdmiral Sir Percy Scott, commanding the First Cruiser Squadron, i which at present forms part of the Channel Fleet, made the following signal to the Captain of the 'Roxburgh, 1 then outeida, the breakwater carrying out gunnery practice: — "Paintwork appears to be wore in demand th;m gunnery, so you had better come mi in time to look pretty by the Bth i:ist." Lord Charles Beresford arrived :tt Portland a few days later, and on the Friday issued a general signal to the whole Channel Fleet, in which "he described RearAdmiral Sir Percy Scott's signal as "contemptuous in tone and insubordinate in character," and ordered it to be expunged from the signal logs of the Good Hope' I (Sir Percy's flagship) and the 'Roxburgh.' As Sir Percy Scott is stated to have demanded an enquiry into the circumstances in which his signal was issued, we may content ourselves iiy observing that as | that signal was an open one- and read by the fleet, it was impossible for Lord Charles Beresford to convey to the flpet his reprobation of his subordinate's conduct otherwise than by the means i adopted. In yiew of these facts, can we wonder that at the discussion of naval affaire at the dinner of the London Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening a letter Avas read from Admiral Sir Frederick Richards, Senior Lord of the Admiralty from 1893-1899, and practically the doyen <of the Service, in which he advocated enquiry into the state of the Navy. This view was supported by Admiral Sir Vesey Hamilton, Mr. Spenser Wilkinson, and others.

During the recent rise in tho wheat market (says the Ashburton Guardian) a large southern farmer had forty-thousand bushels of wheat in his possession, and while prices were on the upward tendency lie was induced to sell at 5s per bushel, which represented £1 per .&ack. A few days after the transaction, the buyer sold tho line, without boing obliged to shift a bag, at an advanced price of od per bushel, which brought him in a net profit of £1000 on the deal. The wheat changed Lands in tho course of a few idays, ifor tho third time, at Ss 9d per bushel, and this time the seller made £500. It may be added that the actual producer of the wheat recently told an Ashburton farmer that, as a result of the farm labourers' trouble, he has not a single acre in crop this year, and he does not intend to go in for any further cropping if he is not satisfied with the ulthnatfe settlement of the dispute He j says that sheep-farming will pay him just as handsomely as growing wheat, which, while giving employment to a larger nu&- j "bey of labourers, i.s a source of much anxiety, owing to the instability of the market aud the uujeliablenesa of the seusous. "Ever been in Siberia ?" asked the reporter. "Kr— ryes," answered the distinguished Russian refugee; "I took a Routing there, one summer."-