" BLESSING IN DISGUISE."

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 150, 22 December 1911, Page 7

" BLESSING IN DISGUISE."

LORD BERESFORD'S RECENT SPEECHES. AND HOME SECRETARY'S OPINION. B> Telegraph .—PreM AgßOclatlon.- Copyrlgnt. (Received December 22, 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, 21fit December. The Right Hon. Reginald M'Kenna, Home Secretary, and late First Lord of the Admiralty, writing to his election agent, states :—" Nobody attaches any importance to Lord Charles Beresforde speeches. It is common knowledge that I refused to employ him or recommend him ac an Admiral of tho Fleet." Lord Charles Beresford, speaking at Southsea last month, eaid that the crisis wns past, but it had been a blessing in dijsguise, suggesting the need for instant preparedness for war by jneans of a war Btatf at ; the Admiralty. During the recent crisis the British fleet was divided, and there was no reserve of coal or oil. He mentioned the transfer of coal by rail, and added that there were no military guards over magazines, dock gates, or caissons, nor at points where the railways were liable in. periods of crisis to be destroyed, and thero were no mine elearers for ports or fairways. Mr. R. M'Kenna, denied the above statements. The transfer of coal, he declared, wae an experiment to ascertain whether traffic would be dislocated thereby. The question of guards for magazines, etc, concerned the War Office', but the allegations were obviously untrue.