Evening star., 1902-01-11

of fife and drum, the old man yelled Justify
to save the precious parcel.
Some Of our Junior rear admirals in pay
only $500 year better off than the erst-
while commodores, are being called upon
to maintain all Of the dignities and respon-
sibilitieS of squadron command, and 1t Is
only just that they should have the prompt
relief of an allowance of table money, for
they feel the burden even more than their
seniors, who today are better off than
their grade predecessors prior to the person
mel bill 1898.
In Foreign Navies.
In the British, the French, the Russian,
German and Italian navies allowances are
made either specifically as table money"
for entertainment, or in the shape of added
pay for the station, with the tacit under
standing that the difference is to meet the
outlay of official dining and the like. Com
ruand pay, that is, the allowance for COM
manding officers not specifically given
table money" is tantamount to an enter
tainment fund, and in the British service
this allowance runs the gamut of all grades
from the sublieutenant in command OF
a torpedo boat to the captain of the battle
ship In the German navy table money Is
allowed to warrant officers well as to
all of the commissioned officers from the
cadet up, and the same may be said OF the
French service The Russians and the 1tal-
ians do substantially the same thing by
increasing the pay the station gets far
ther from the home waters, and as the cost
of living and the likelihood Of official enter
tanning increases.
In the British service-the best standard
for our own-hag officers of all grades re-
ceive yearly alloWance-rated as so much
per diem-of table money" when at sea,
either at home or abroad. British rear
admiral, when chief in command of for
eign station, receives-in addition to his reg
ular pay of $5,329-an annual allowance Of
81, 40 for table money! senior
rear admirals receive total annual pay of
81 800 and our junior rear admiralS $4,000.
The British second in command-the cor
relative of junior flag officers on the Asiattc
station-receive in pay $500. and in table
money" $685.. 66. In each case, pretty
nearly double the allowance of our flag
officers. The command pay of other Of
fcers and various special allowances
not easily convertible into corresponding
terms for our service, all tend to put the
British officer upon comfortable basis
when it comes to entertainment, and few
tf any of them, will believe 1t when tod
that a country like ours expects it's naval
officers to do all it's official entertaining at
their own expense. British vice admiral
the grade commonly In command OF the
more important stations-is even more hand
somely paid.
When it is proposed to entertain-either
In return or in advance of other hospitalt-
ties-the officers are notified, and from the
admiral down to the cadet each is expected
to chip in. The admiral generally contrib
utes four shares, the captain two shares
and the ward room and steerage officers
each one share, the tax upon each being
determined ultimately when the function is
over. Some years ago the Junior officers
of the steerage mess declined to Joln-thelr
first uniforms being still unpaid for. The
| captain of that ship, to get even with those
thrifty young gentlemen, detailed all OF
them to do boat duty-work ordinarily
| turned over to ,.,e coxswains OF the poats
on occasions Of entertainment except II
| the single instance of a launch bearing the
| big bugs" OF course, they could not
| dance, neither did they sup; and. in the
| future, threw thrift to the wind.
| ROBERT G. SKERRETT.