Two important and significant articles stating "The Case against the
Admiralty" appeared in the Times of Friday, April 2nd, and Monday, April 5th,—importa.nt because of their contents, and significant because up till now the Times has been a consistent supporter of Sir John Fisher's regime. The writer, who, without resorting to any violence of expression, does not mince matters, attributes the mischief wrought in the last four and a half years primarily to the action taken by Lord Selborne in 1904, when, by redistributing the business amongst the members of the Board of Admiralty, he abandoned the Principle by which the First Sea Lord was regarded as only Pintas inter pares. Thus Sir John Fisher on his appointment as First Sea Lord was invested with powers which enabled him to earry out a number of drastic changes which he had brought re,adY-made with him to the Admiralty—notably those dealing with the redistribution of fleets, the "scrapping" of ships, and the closing of foreign dockyards or naval bases—with a rapidity which precluded the possibility of adequate inquiry.
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