Beveral questions have been addressed to Ministers in the House of Commons this week on the subject of the friction between Sir John Fisher, Lord Charles Beresford and Sir Perey Scott, and the sensational story of a narrowly averted collision is told by "The Times" last week; but the Government has consistently held to the statement that it is without information an the subject, and that no investigation can take place until the close of the naval manovavres, Meanwhile there has been good deal of correspondence on the subject in "The Times," which has been severely taken to task for publishing the story of the averted collision at a time when Lord Charles could not soco Nan himself. I happen to know that at least three other London journals—one of them renowned for its love of a fensation—received the story, and all three declined to publish it. I have lightest doubt that all four journals had precisely the same data to go upon in considering whether they would be justified in giving it to the world. "The Times'" naval corres pondent defends the publication on the extraordinary ground that the story embodied no accusation against Lord Charles, "certainly none either of gross incompetence, or of ignorance," since not only Admiral Tryon, bat two or three Admirals since him have perpetrated a similar blander, all of them except Admiral Tryon having been saved from causing a terrible catastrophe either by their subordinates or by themselves realizing their blunder in time to rectify it. This is a statement hardly calculated to reassure the pablic.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.