THE ROYAL OAK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20362, 20 March 1928, Page 9

THE ROYAL OAK

SUSPENSION OF OFFICERS

ADMIRAL’S LANGUAGE RESENTED

(Dress Association — By Telegraph— Copyright. l LONDON, March IS.

Information from a quarter which must be respected throws some interesting sidelights upon incidents in the social naval life in the Mediterranean which have gone further than clubroom gossip. The suspension of the officers is not a storm in the teacup, but the culmination of subordinates’ long-growing resentment at the language the admiral uses. They have also resented on several occasions, the time, place, anti public nature of his remarks on what ne considered the failings of those about him. They maintain that lie has outstripped the bounds in which they are forced by their junior rank to bend a silent and respectful oar, consequently they decided to take advantage of an- article in British Naval Law entitling subordinates to make a complaint after showing tho complaint to tho man they accuse. Tho trouble between Commander Daniel and Admiral Collarcl started on the day that the admiral boarded the Royal Oak. Discipline under all officers is strict on mcn-of-war, but there are certain polite conventions which help to make it endurable. Captains of ships are not usually reprimanded before the men. It has been known here for some time that Admiral Collard’s comments on what lie considered the condition of the new flagship, delivered as he made his first rounds, rocked the ship from stem to stern. —Sydney Sun Cable.

A TRIVIAL INCIDENT. BAND MUSIC FOR A DANCE. LONDON, March 19. (Received March 19, at 0 p.ni.) The naval correspondent of the Daily Express states that at a dance given on the Royal Oak the music was to be supplied by two bands from the slup, one composed of marines and the other a jazz band formed by officers and seamen of the battleship. The jazz band played a number of dances, but a discussion when the official band was due to piny resulted in the jazz band continuing. The trivial incident raises the important question of the degree of authority an admiral has on his own flagship. A. and N.Z. Cable.