Arizona republican., 1898-04-26
SICARD ON DUTY.
The Admiral Will be Secretary Longs
 Chief of Staff

Washington, April 25.-An impor tant step in the preparation for war
 was the assignment of Rear Admiral
 Montgomery Sicard to duty in the of | flee of the secretary of the navy. Ad
 miral Sicard will be Secretary Longs chief of staff. His functions will be | largely advisory, but he will have | much executive work to do. His place
 will correspond to that of the major
 general commanding and the adjutant- general of the army to the secretary of war. Admiral Sicard was until re- gently the commander-in-chief of the north Atlantic naval station. He was
 obliged to relinquish that office on ac- | count of ill health and six months sick leave was granted him. Since 1 then he has been rapidly convalescing.
 Smelling the battle from afar, the | fighting instincts of the admiral, now within a few months of the retiring
 age, braced up wonderfully, and he ap-
 piled to Secretary Long for restoration
 to active duty. In granting this re
 quest Secretary Long paid high com | pliment to Admiral Sicard in assign | ing him to duty as his chief of staff. 1 The remainder of the admira1's sick
 leave has been revoked. 1 The conduct of the naval campaign
 in the coming war will be in the | hands of Admiral Sicard and other competent officers, who will act as | advisers to President Mckinley and
 Secretary Long. A board on strategy 1 has been in existence for more than a
 month, and it will be reorganized on | the probable retirement of it's chair
 man, Theodore Roosevelt, assistant
 secretary of the navy, whose assign
 ment to military staff position will follow the first resort to hostilities,
 unless MT. Roosevelt can be persuaded 1 10 change his mind. Rear Admiral
 John G. Walker, retired, will remain
 a member of the strategy board. The
 new assistant secretary of the navy
 will be civilian specially selected for
 his htnes sto carry out the plans which
 MT. Roosevelt has been perfecting
 since the emergency appropriation of $5O,OOO,000 was made by congress and | even before that time. Much of the work with which MT. Roosevelt was in-
 trusted will be given in charge of Rear
 Admiral Sicard, leaving the new as- l sistant secretary to perform duties of | a character less technical. This di- vision will be necessary on account of ! the great increase in the work of the | assistant secretary's office.
 Of the five members of the strategy
 board, three will soon leave Wash
 ington to take up duties at the front. These three are MT. Roosevelt. Cant. A. L. Barker, who will probably be
 assigned to the command of the auxiI- iary cruiser, Harvard, formerly the | American liner New York, and Com
 mander Richardson Clover, assigned
 to the command of the cruiser Ban | croft. the members who will remain at
 Washington are Admiral Walker and
 Capt. A. s. Crowninshield, chief of the
 bureau of navigation. There is some
 doubt about Capt. Barker's detail to sea duty. He has been a valuable as- sistant to Secretary Long in the pres ent crisis. In addition to his mem-
 bership on the strategy board, he Is the navy's military representative on
 the joint military and naval board on
 defence
 Friends of Assistant Secretary
 Roosevelt are trying tc persuade him
 not to go to the front but MT. RoOse- welt has made up his mind to go. To the argument that he would be greater value to his country as assis- taDt secretary Of the navy than as an
 staff officer of the army, Mr. Roosevelt
 has been practically completed Most of it concerned the preparation for war, answered that his work in Washington
 and there is little |, ore to be done in that regard. MT. R osevelt has work ed night and day ill his enthusiastic endeavor to place the navy On a war footing. How well he had done his
 duty was appreciated by the president
 and the cabinet when they came to
 the conclusion recently that war was
 inevitable. Secretary Long expressed i to his assistant secretary the feeling of
 the president when he said that MT.
 Roosevelt had besn pillar of strength to the government. Where Mir.
 Roosevelt will go when hostilities be- l gin, whether on the staff Of Gen. Fitz-
 hugh Lee CT some other high rank ohi-
 cer, has not been determined. It is | certain however that his aSsion,77ent