Evening star., 1902-01-11
NAVAL HOSPITALITY
Officers Find 1t a Heavy Drain on
Their Purses.
MUST OFTEN ACT As HOSTS
Then Pay the Bills Out of Their
Own Pockets.
WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES DO
Written for The Evening Star.


matter of his own unhampered choice, the
"entente cordiale," more times than rec
ords tell was bred in the beliicose captain
of another flag amid the afterglow of the
nuts and wine our own shipboard.
How much blood has remained unshed
through the spilling, instead, of few bot
ties of good old port and the smoking sac
rifice of many handsome round of beef is
a matter for speculation; but our grand
fathers of the service can tell how the gall
some commandants of foreign fleets have
been won to grace through the timely prof
fer of hospitality and the cheer of we'll
spread table. Those were the rollicking
days of high winds and, sometimes, higher
tempers, when your neighbor was treated
either to a round of powder and ball or
the equally potent persuasive of bottle and
biscuit. The days of haSty offerings OF
roaring shot have past, but the binding
spell of glass and cracker still remains.
Apart from the personal entertainment OF
intimates the unwritten laws of the navy
have required the commanders of fleets and
the captains of individual ships, as well,
to foster friendly relations with the Of
ficials Of other powers by a generous prof
fer of hospitality and the breaking of some
thing more than bread in the abin, ward
room and Steerage of our ships, and this,
well nigh generally, at the expense of the
entertaining officers. In the days of sail
ing ships and the much more modest
standard of living, this tax upon the Off
GERS purse was not so grieyous as now.
To-Day our vessels, glorying in their speed,
hasten from one port to another bear
ing the majesty of our flag, while the
officers bear the burden of most of the
tertaining that follows in consequence.
| This has now become so much of a tax
that occasionally the Navy Department. de-
parting, perforce of circumstances, from the
strict letter of the appropriations, is obliged
to help some flag officer or captain out of
nndncldl embarrassment incident to off,
cial hospitality not of his own choosing
Not to have entertained would have occa-
sicned unkind- comment, and thus, for the
sake of face as the Chinese say, our Of
ficers, with no assurance of reimburse
ment, have gone down in their own pock-
cts and entertained people toward whom
they would naturally or commonly have felt
no sense Of intimacy. This is largely ex-
emplifed even within our own waters by
the frequent call from cities celebrating
local and even national events for the detail
of naval vessels to participate in the cere-
monies. These functions invariably de-
mand a certain amount of official enter
tainment, even If spirit of social hospital
ity be absent, and, as a rule, the officers
of the ships must pay the fiddler. In no
other naval service Of any moment is this
the case, although the provision for this
outlay Is not at first apparent.
Favors an Annual Allowance.
Secretary Long, realizing the injustice of
this-especially as most officers have to
share their pay, when at sea, with their
loved ones at home-has recommended an
annual allowance of $500 for flag officers
afioat, to be used table money for the
usual run of official entertainment; and to
meet the tax of unusual and extraordinary
entertainment upon the captain and Off
GERS messes of other ships it is proposed
that the department be given authority to
use its discretion in paying for these func-
tionS.
,1-;+I
tions it is plain that the commanding Off
Ger, frequently, is put to more of a per-
sonal outlay than the flag officer of the
fleet. The flag officer generally makes
fairly long stays in the principal ports OF
his station, and, after the first round of
entertainments. the call for them is only
infrequently. To the smaller ships of the
squadron falls the principal duty of cruis-
ing, and IN nearly every port there is a
fair or unfair-judged by the drain on the
purse-amount of entertaining. The oih-
GERS. as rule, are junior to those on the
flagship, and their pay, in aggregate is
less yet the measure of the outlay is often
greater than that on the squadron leader,
| where there is always a band to furnish
| music. Again, in the less favored seapors S.
favor being measured by the frequency
| of the flags visit-much is generally
| made of the coming of a man-ofwar, and
| both the local public and the resident ofli-
| cials more active in their visitations-
| the tax. even without dress function,
| being a pretty steady and a pretty heavy
| one to bear. Our conSuls in these out-ot.
| the-way places feel that their own stand
| ing is improved by the display of naval
| hospitality, and, none too seldom, ask IT
| automatically, of course-in behalf of their
| foreign confreres and resident officials.
| Returning Courtesies.
| The occasions when the Navy Depart
ment has felt justified in reimbursing off,
GERS have been very few and far between.
| For the international naval review of '93
| Congress made an appropriation for official
| entertainment-the one prime time In re-
| cent years for handsome return of for
| eign compliments of like sort, and it has
| been a source of regret to many of the
| older men of the service that the whole
| sum was not expended in one grand even
| ing up of the score. The treasury would
| have been none the worse, while national
prestige, in a hospitable sense, would have
| been made for years to come without tax
| upon the purses of our officers The cap
| tain and officers of the Oregon had to go
| through all the agonies of popularity-after
| our war with Spain-when the ship visited
| the home ports, and so serious was the
! drain that the department allowed the COM
mandng officer, By way of reimbursement.
| SSH for outlays in entertainments of d
| purely official character. In the case of the
Chicago, on her cruise around Africa two
| years ago-dispatehed especially to show
| our flag in foreign waters but seldom visit
| ed by our ships-the expense of all strictly
| there were a goodly bunch of them-was
| borne by the officers of the ship
| Heavy Burden.
| 1t is not but short while since our COM
| modores-now merged in the grade Of rear
| admiral, were called upon to do the honors
of flag officers in foreign ports although the
| grade for many years was recognized as
designed for the commandancy of shore
| stations-a lull between the sea life Of
| captain and the squadron command of
rear admiral. With only commodores
| pay and with all Of the official taxes of a
| rear admiral 1t is matter of common re-
| pute in the service that many of these men
| had either to make up the difference from
| the private purses-not their salaries-or
to ask to be relieved II unwilling to bear
| the charge of stinginess. In fact, the de-
partment has been obliged to recall officers
of thrifty nature-they were not mean men
either--who could not keep up that meas
ure of official hospitality demanded by their
stations. The story is told of a rear ad-
miral once commanding the Mediterranean
squadron, who having a large and expen-
sive family of daughters, was forced to
| limit his entertaining For three months at