The San Francisco call., 1898-03-12

o NEW YORK, March IA O Washington special to the Her Q aid says: Secretary Long will o appoint, probably tomorrow, an o 0 important board with a flag of O ficer as its president to make O arrangements for obtaining and converting merchant steamships into auxiliary cruisers. This ac- o o tion will be taken as result or a conference held this afternoon o and yesterday by Assistant Sec O retary Roosevelt, Captain A. s. O Crowninshield. chief of the Blu o reau of Navigation, Captain Charles O'Neil, chief of the Bu- o reau of Ordnance; Commander O R. B. Bradford, chief of the Blu reau of Equipment, and Chlef Q Naval Constructor Hichborn. Q
 After a careful consideration of the subject these officials decided that 1t would be desirable to have the board make a personal inspection of each ves- sel in order to determine her value for fighting purposes, and Assistant Secre- tary Roosevelt will tomorrow morning present this recommendation to Secre- tary Long. There is little doubt that the recommendation will be adopted. So far as the personnel of the board had been discussed, I understand that 1t IS proposed to place thereon an officer or the rank of commodore, a junior line officer, an engineer officer and a naval constructor. From the present indi- cations the officers to be selected to preside over the boards session will be Commodore F. McNair, at present of the Navy Examining and Retiring Board, and formerly president of the Board of Inspection and Survey. Lieu tenant Commander J. P. J. Kelly, who has been inspector of merchant yes sels at the port of New York and who, with Assistant Naval Instructor J. G. Tawresey, has been making prelimi nary plans for the conversion CT mer- chant steamships into auxiliary cruis- CTS, will probably be continued as a member of the board.
 The work of the board will be con- fined to an inspection of vessels on the Atlantic coast. It is appreciated by the officials that there is no necessity or using any merchant ships on the Pa cific Slope. and the board will not pro- ceed to that section. From the trend of discussion at the meeting this after noon it is evident that the board will be directed to visit Boston, New York. Philadelphia and Norfolk to examine not only vessels which have been sub- sidized by this Government, but many other American ships which it may be deemed desirable to convert into auxil- iary cruisers or transports.
 On accout of the provisions of the %l1r a1oac of all subsidized vessels outright before they can be converted into auxiliary cruisers, the board will be instructed to confer with ship owners with view of getting more equitable adjustment of the matter. The authorities have no desire to buy ships, but they would like to charter them, and ir any damage IS done to the steamers to make good the amount that may be lost to the own CTS It is believed that the board will be able to arrive at an agreement which will be satisfactory to the ship owners.
 So far as the authorities have deter termined the ships that will be first taken will be vessels attached to the American line-the St. Louis. the St. Paul and the New York These vessels are the speediest of their type in the | world, have splendid coal endurance and will be just the ships for scouting duty when attached to squadron, and when combined with the Brooklyn New York. Columbia and Minneapolis will make a squadron Tat will be em- 1 ployed to attack the Spanish ports and cause the retention in ST anish waters l of a lar ge fleet to defend such posts Such a squadron as this will be formed | immediately after the outbreak of hos | tilities and be sent to Europe to re- | enforce the European station under the command of Commodore J. A. Howell Commodore Howell is now at Lisbon with the San Francisco and the gun boats Helena and Bancroft. and off | cials say that this fleet will be giver | telegraphic orders at the first sign ol trouble to harass Spanish ports and ne cessitate a division of the Spanish na- | val force
 l It is part of the plan of campaign | which this Government has formed tC attack Spain immediately after having disposed of the Spanish forces in Cuba But simultaneously with any attack that may be made on the Spanish | forces in Cuba a dash will be made upon the Philippine Islands by the American force at Hongkong.