Page:Memorandum (Rear-Admiral Sir John C. Dalrymple Hay, 1912).djvu/16

( 12 ) on the name of any person without making him acquainted with the fact.

I shall have the honour of attending at Whitehall at 11 on Monday, to read the Minute in which you do me the honour to state that I mistakenly assume that my name has been improperly used.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient humble servant, The of the.

In accordance with the invitation of the Admiralty, Sir John Hay called upon Mr. Childers at 11 on Monday, 7th February. After some conversation Mr. Childers showed the Memorandum in question to Sir John Hay. The portion to which Sir John Hay took exception was:—

"The Admiralty (Sir John Hay) appears to have entered needlessly, and with imperfect knowledge, into a controversy with the War Department on the subject."

Sir John Hay believes it to be unusual, and indeed unprecedented, that personal reflections upon former Ministers should be recorded publicly by their successors without making them acquainted with the fact, and giving them public opportunity of defending their acts. He is sure that oral advice of that kind is sufficient, and that when a charge is publicly recorded, its object should be acquainted with its existence, as has always been the custom at former Boards.

Sir John Hay has good reason to believe that this was not the sole occasion on which his name had been so used, and that a similar course had been pursued in regard to at least one of his late colleagues.