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that he formed this opinion from any information derived from his brother but simply states that he knows that Chief Stewards could bleed the men and without knowing the Chief Steward accuses him of misconduct which, had there been any justification for making it, should have been reported at the time to the Military Commanding Officer and dealt with there and then.
Had the Military Commanding Officer been informed of misconduct on the part of any member of the ship's crew without informing the Commander and mentioning the. fact in his report, he would have failed in his duty. We also submit to you, Sir, that
A.
hed the Chief Steward "bled" the men during the "MANITOU'S"
passage to Alexandria he would have repeated the offence on subsequent trips and sooner or later some one would have reported him, whereas as a matter of fact the "MANITOU" was absent on Government service from the beginning of June last until the end of January, nearly eight months and not one of the many military Commanding Officers who have been on that vessel during the period mentioned above have reported adversely on the victualling department of the vessel.
The Master of the "MANITOU" who, until he joined that vessel last June, was unacquainted with the Chief Steward reports to us that he does not consider that there is any truth in the
accusation made against the Chief Steward. He states that he
always found him straight forward and above board.
In view of the Master's opinion, of the many good reports signed by successive Military Commanding Officers and of the
absence of any evidence against the chief Steward we sincerely
trust that you will, Sir, exonerate the Chief Steward of the
alleged
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