SIR PERCY SCOTT. ,

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15307, 21 February 1920, Page 2

SIR PERCY SCOTT. ,

FIFTY YEAES IN THE NAVY.

RED TAPE AT THE ADMIRALTY. I Admiral Sir Percy Scott, in his autobiography, " s Fifty Years in the Royal v Navyf. (John; Murray), makes some remarkable- disclosures regarding the solid wall of official obstruction which htv encountered in his-attempts to improve the utterly inefficient system, of gunnery which prevailed in the RoyJi* Navy, when he joined the service. * He qyotes . the reports of official inspections to show that cleanliness of the ship and state of the men's "bedding were regarded as the important factors of efficiency—that the captain and gunnery lieutenant wno took great pains to make their ship an efficient fighting unit received no praise or recognition of nny kind. "It was only success in tailoring and housemaiding" that secured commendation. -NaturaUy, as a result of this policy, officers were more disposed to keep their men scrubbing the decks and polishing the brasswork than at gunnery exercises. As an example of bad shooting, he mentions that an inspection of the forts of Alex-. andria after the bombardment in 1882 snowed that of forty-two modern guns ia the forts only ten "had been put out of action by gunfire in a day's bombardment. The fleet fired in all 3000 rounds i at the forts, and, as far as the enemy's j I guns were concerned, made ten hits. 1 When JLdmiral Scott entered the j Navy as a midshipman in 1866 flogging was a constant practice. On the first ship.in yhich he made a long voyage the commander was a bully, whose motto was masthead for midshipmen and the cat for the men."l saw one anan receive four dozen strokes of the cat on Monday and then three dozen on Saturday, and he took them without a murmur." This brutal officer was subsequently dismissed the ship for punishing a seaman in contz'avention of regulations. "He revelled in flogging, and the sight of it seemed, the one thing that gave him any pleasure"—pretty conclusive evidence of the danger of entrusting suchjpowers even to men who are conventionafly classed as "gentlemen." • From his earliest years as a lieutenant, Admiral Scott applied his inventive talent to the improvement of gunnery, but he met with little encouragement either from the admirals under whom he served or at headquarters. An application which he made to the Admiralty for permission to patent some o? his inventions was met by a warning

from the Admiralty that" the fact of his holding patents would be a '.'grave objection to his being selected for any scientific or administrative post." But the most extraordinary example of Admiralty methods is related in connection with a report on the regulations for prize-fighting, drawn up by a committee comprising Captain Scott, Captain John Jellieoe, Captain Sir George Warrender, two commanders and ten gunnery lieutenants. These regulations were put into operation with success on the China station, and were forwarded to the Admiralty. The report went to a very junior lieutenant in H.M.S. Excellent, the gunnery establishment at Portsmouth, who turned the report down, deciding that there was nothing in it of importance. The dilatoriness of the Admiralty in adopting necessary reforms extended even to the war period. In proof of this, Admiral Scott cites a number of examples.