Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-30

He Has Sent Note to Secretary Long
 Long's Sweeping Order to the Mem-
 bers of the Naval Department Some
 of the Incidents the Board of In-
 quiry Will Be Called Upon to In-
 vestigate.
 Washington, July BOA letter has been received at the navy department
 from Admiral Kimberley, asking to be excused from acting on the Schley court of inquiry, on account of the state of his health. The admiral is understood to be suffering from heart
 trouble.
 Secretary Long's action in ordering all navallreT ta fefraln from discussing the, Schley-Sampson controversy will put an end to the indiscriminate talk ing in which naval officers have been induging ever since the Sampson-Schiey controversy came to the front again.
 There already is in the naval regu- lations paragraph forbidding officers
 from commenting upon cases that are
 about to be officially investigated, but
 as this prohibition seems to have es-
 capped the attention of the officers the
 secretary thought that he would ems
 phasiZe it by a special order.
 The order is universal in it's scope, not being limited merely to naval offs
 cers but includlng al who are in the naval service. The secretary felt he could not make it's application too broad, and under it's operation not evenI the clerks in the navy department will be permitted to discuss the case for publication. The issuance of the order is regarded as an absolute necessity in view of the fact that the court ot inquiry will convene next month. It is said in the navy department that no word has been received from Ads
 miral Schley respecting the composi- tion of the court, but it is expected q 1 letter will arrive acknowledging the l receipt of copy of the precept, or order converting the court. It is not believed that he will offer any objec- | tion to the wording of this document or to the personnel of the court The report current that paragraph ! five of the precept, which charges Rear l Admiral Schley with "disobedience's will be amended, has no foundation in | fact. This phrase was not inserted until l it was found that Schley himself had | expressed his regret because he could | not obey the orders of the department. 1 Comment has been caused by the l paragraph which directs the board to 1 examine into the propriety of Schley's | action in withdrawing his squadron I from i'll front of Santiago harbor every | night and sailing out to sea. This par l agraph was based upon Schley's own l statement that he had executed this I maneuver.
 | 1t is interesting to note that the l Spanish officials in Santiago regarded l this withdrawal as one of the inex- | plicable things of the American plan l of campaign. The fact is brought out with some emphasis in a book which has recently been published blythe office of the Naval Intelligence, entitled l .sNotes on the War With Spain." The | first part of this volume consists of l the translation of diary kept by Lieu- l tenant Jose Muller y Tejeiro, second in I command of the naval force in Santi- | ago province the period covered being 1 from the arrival of Cervera's fleet, on | May 19, until the surrender. In this l diary Lieutenant Muller writes as fol- l lows:
 1 "Another problem: Why did the l hostile ships, which remained all day | long in front of the mouth of the har- 1 Dor, disappear at dark, instead of con- l tinuing to watch it during the nightE
 I dc not know. The whole coast is ac-
 cessible and the ground so high that ! it can be distinguished perfectly even l in stormy weather, so that there was l no danger in remaining there in calm weather, such as we have had all of | this year"
 The query which arose in the mind | of this Spanish naval officer was dis cussed by the American officers in the navy department in Washington, and | the fact that it has never been satis- factorily answered led to the incorpora-
 tion of paragraph in the precept con-
 corning the nightly withdrawal of the l Schley squadron.