The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-24
OFFICERS ARE NEEDED
NOT ENOUGH TO COMMAND SHIPS
 OF THE NAVY.
Admiral Converse of Bureau of Naviga tIOn, Recommends In Ills An- nuaI Report a Heavy In-
 crease in Men.

Washington, Nov 23.-How badly off the navy Is for officers and how seri- ously this condition may affect the navy and the nation Is plainly told in the annual report of Rear. Admiral George A. Converse, Chief of the Bu- reau of Navigation, approved by Secre- tary Morton today.
 Experience. especially in gun fire, he says, has shown that 1t is necessary to increase the number of officers as- signed to ships so that the estimate made in 1902 as to the number of offi- cers needed for ships in commission Is inadequate. It provided for only about one-half the number of officers as ships of the same class carry in the British, French and German navies. Admiral Converse recommends that the number of lieutenauts be increased from $50 to 500 and that the number of lieutenant commanders be increased from 200 to 300.
 Tt is especially desirable," the Ad- miral says, that every battleship and other powerful vessel, requiring the greatest skill and experience for prop CT efficiency should have her full quota of ofhcers of suitable grade; yet many of our battleships have lieutenants as navigators, practically all have lieu- tenants as ordnance officers and sev- eral battleships have ensigns and even midshipmen as watch and division of- ficers This very unsatisfactory and even dangerous condition is due to the many urgent demands for officers. the existing inadequacy of numbers often making 1t impossible to detail officers of appropriate rank. The increasing numbers of midshipmen graduated from the Naval Academy in time will par tially relieve the situation in the lower grades, but more lieutenant comman- ders and lieutenants are needed fthan existing laws provide.
 Because of the important part played by torpedo craft in the war in the Far East, 1t Is deemed advisable that the larger vessels of this type be com manded by lieutenant commanders.
 To illustrate how much older the captains of the American navy are than those of foreign navies. the report says that the youngest American commander today on the day he attained that rank was older than the average of English and German captains. He had passed the compulsory retirement age for Japanese captains. and was within six teen months of the compulsory retire ment age for German and English of fioers.
 Authorization by Congress of two vice. admirals is urgently recommended. in order that our flag officers may not be beneath foreign officers holding equal or inferior commands.
 Regarding the paramount ef1ciency of the battIeship and the part played by them in the far eastern war. Ad miral Converse says:
 Although a hundred or more torpedo boats and destroyers have been actual ly engaged for five months against bat tleships which have been exposed to attack times without number. we have yet to learn authoritatively of a tor pedo vessel causing the loss of single battleship. Those which have been sunk owed their destruction to subma- rine mines, anchored or broken adrift, torpedo vessels not contributing to the result except by the confusion and sense of greater danger due to their presence. Ii Is evident that in the final summary of losses the achieve ments of torpedo vessels will count less than was at first supposed. It cannot be claimed. therefore that there has been SO far anything to discredit the battleship as a type"
 Early in his report. Admiral Con- verse calls attention to the need of a general stan on board, "an advisory body which shall not be under the con trol of any bureau but responsible directly to the secretary"