The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1915-06-22
LATE CRISIS CAME
AS NO SURPRISE
Churchill-Fishe Row and Differ.
ences Between Kitchener and
French with Threatened Reve-
lations Precipitated Il
BY ED /. KEEN.

tunited Press Staff Correspondent
London. June 1O.-(By mail to New
York)-Swapping horses in the mid
die Of stream is usually considered
rather ticklish business; but there's
no reason, in certain circumstances.
why one shouldn's chuck the horse and
take to a boat-especially If the horse
is overloaded and the current has car
! ried him off his feet.
| This is just the predicament iu
which John Bull found himself nine
months after the war started-onIy
more so. The horse he had been rid.
ing since August had not only be-
come lust about tuckered out, but he
had gone lame and had begun to balk.
Also, the stream which at first ap-
peared comparatively easy to negoti-
ate had transformed itself into rag
ing torrent, and the further shore kept
receding.
So John very wisely decided TO chuck
the old single-party cabinet nag and
get aboard the coalition boat. But he
didn't arrive at this decision volun-
tarily. The crew fairly had to drag
him off the horse and into the boat.
And he would probably still be cling
ing to old Dobbin's back If Premier
Asquith hadn't pushed him while the
others pulled
The recent cabinet crisis came as
no surprise to those who have had
the opportunity of observing from the
nearJnside Great Britain's conduct OF
the war in the past few months-an
especially the past few weeks. While
the German people had steadily be-
come more united and determined,
with the successful prosecution of the
war, the one thing uppermost in the
mind of every man, woman and child
in the Fatherland, nothing apparently
could jar the people of England out Of
their attitude of indifference and
apathy. Enlistments fell off, labor
troubles increased. and though day by
day saw the Germans more strongly
entrenched than ever and offering
fiercer resistance, business as usual
and pleasure as usual continued to
be the watchword Of the vast majority
of the British nation.
But these things we're obvious. 1t
was not known to the public that the
most serious sort Of dissensions had
sprung up among the men whom the
country had entrusted with the task OF
saving the empire-and let it go at
that.
First came the row in the admiralty
between the first lord. Winston
Churchill, and the first sea lord, Ad-
miral Fisher. Churchill. the civilian
head of the navy--to whom the empire
owes an everlasting debt Of gratitude
for mobilizing the fleet before the
declaration of war and thus saving to
Britain the control of the seas en-
barked the country upon the disas-
trous Dardanelles adventure, over the
protests of Fisher. and without the
knowledge of the cabinet generally uD-
til after the enterprise had gotten too
far along to be abandoned Churchill
didn't figure for a minute that the
Dardanelles could be forced by ships
alone, as some folks have charged. but
he did figure on Greece coming IN with
her army assisting on the land This
time he guessed wrong The naval At.
tack failed. and a large expeditfonary
land force had to be sent by the allies.
Churchill continued to exercise his
control over matters Of purely naval
strategy, until Fisher couldn't stand
it any longer. He handed Premier As-
quith his resignation but with a
string tied to it. II Asquith would fire
Churchill Fisher would stay.
Just about this time the scandal IN
the army. which had been brewing for
several weeks. boiled over. The Brit