FLAG INCIDENT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 19 March 1928, Page 5

FLAG INCIDENT

NOT STORM IN TEACUP.

LONG GROWING GRIEVANCE. SUBOR.DI NATES’ RESENTMENT. <V CABI.E —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT 3 Received 9.40 a.m. to-day. /LONDON, March 18. Information from a quarter which must be respected, throws some interesting sidelights upon incidents in social naval life in the Mediterranean, which lias gone further than clubroom gossip. The suspension of officers is not a storm in a teacup, but culmination of subordinates’ long growing resentment of the language the admiral uses. They have also resented, on several occasions, the time, place and public nature of his remarks on what he considered the failings of those about him. They maintain that lie has outstripped the bounds in which they were forced, by their junior rank, to bend a silent and respectful car. Consequently they decided to take advantage of an article in British naval law, entitling subordinates to make a complaint after showing the complaint to the man they accuse. The trouble between Commander Daniel and Admiral Oollard started the day the Admiral boarded the Royal Oak. The discipline of all under officers is strict on men-o’-war, but there are certain polite conventions which help to make it endurable. Captains of ships are not usually reprimanded before the men.

It lias been known here for some time that Admiral Col lard’s comments on wliat he considered the condition of the new flagship delivered as lie made his first rounds, rocked the ship from stem to stern. —“Sydney Sun” cable. DISCIPLINARY MATTERS. LONDON, March 18. The Admiralty report of the Malta Court of Inquiry, which investigated disciplinary matters affecting the alleged mutiny in the Mediterranean, has been received, and the Admiralty is now considering it The Admiralty definitely states: “There has not been a mutiny or a refusal to sail under Rear-Admiral Collard, and there has not been a court-martial.” - A Court Circular states that the Rt. Hon. W. C. Bridgeman, First- Lord of the Admiralty, visited the King today'. ■ The Admiralty has issued a _ communique regarding certain incidents which have occurred at Malta on board the battleship Royal Oak, the flagship of the first battle squadron of the Mediterranean fleet. The communique says: “A court of inquiry was held at Malta. by r order .of the Commander-in-Ohief of the /Mediterranean station to investigate certain disciplinary matters in which .Rear-Admiral Bernard Collard, Captain Kenneth Dewar, and Commander H. M Daniel were involved. As the result of the inquiry the three officers concerned were suspended from duty by the Commander-in-Chief. whose report has not yet been received at the Admiralty.” MALTA, March 17. Rear-Admiral Oollard has departed for London under Admiralty instructions.