New-York tribune., 1905-11-06
ARMY AND NAVY NEWS.
(From The Tribune Bureau.l


Washington November g.
/. NO RUSH TO JOIN ARAIY.-The military au-
thorities troubled the difficulty in
obtaining recruits. The records show that there
is an apprecable falling off in the number of men
who apply TO the recruiting offices and who are
accepted The latter condition is partly due to the
fact that the officers in charge of the recruiting
for the army strict in their observation
of candidates than hitherto This is deemed
necessary on account of the large percentage of
discharges for disability among the enlisted men
of the service The officers duty in the Philip
pines say that the members of the commands
should be young of better physical equipment
than is the where the troops are kept at
stand the tropical climate and soldier who does
not up the standard in this respect is apt
to require medical attention assignment to the nos
ptal and perhaps transportation home, with event
uaI discharge for disability This not cny involves
eXnense in one way or another but il means the
creation of vacancies in the enlisted force in the
the distance and time represented by sending sol
ders TO the islands The War epaT1 ri zen bnns mas
that only those of known and proved a~nlty ~ nl;tg @
in this way the enlisted force is bound to be I'M
proved, it is believed. The lack of applicants for
labor in ali parts OF the country
NAVY UNATTRACTIVE TO ENGINEERS
The examination held at New-York last week
by a naval board for the purpose of filling five
vacancies in the corps of civil engineers in the
surprises no one, least of all the officers of that
branch of the service. The positions vacant are
those of assistant civil engineer, and unusual
efforts were made this year TO advertise the
meeting of the examining board together with
the advantages a service commission would be
to the graduates of the technical schools who
could pass the examination Last year there
ere no candidates. This year three reported
the New York board, and it is an
..0unced that none of them found qualified
All failed TO attain the required average which
was said to be reasonable in all respects. The
truth Of the matter is that the corps does not
offer special inducements to civil engineers
who find better salaries outside of the govern
ment service: the restrictions of naval life are
irksOme to many; the opportunities in the
service are fewer than is the in civil life;
finally, the chances of promotion in the corps of
civil engineers diminishing There is no
such hope of advancement for the assistant civil
engineer for the naval constructor, for in
stance, or for the line officer of the service
Then, too, there is the endless Tumpus about
titles and the feeling that the line officers do
not regard the civil engineers as a part of the
service. These conditions have contributed to
can get d job outside of the navy he would do
better to take it than try to obtain a commits
sion in the corps. There are still five vacancies
in the branch upon which. account of the
large amount of public work. there many
demands The older officers say there is little
chance Of filling the places until Congress is
willing to provide what belongs to the corps.
EXPERIENCE IN AfANCHURIA.-It has not yet
been decided by Lieutenant General Chafee to just
what extent the War Department will publish to
the world the result of the observations of the
army officers who with the Japanese and
Russian troops in ManchuTia. Nothing is likely to
appear until all the reports handed in and until
all officers have returned to this country. Some
six who have been serving in Manchuria
are now bound for this country. and it will prob
ably be six months before the department
is in position to give out the information in book
form. OF course the reports will have to be care
fully edited as the officers who made them were
candid in their comments. and must be
rass the authors offend the Russians ana Japan
ese- Both governments rendered every possible
facilJy 10 the american military attaches for OBJ
servation, and the results have been shown in the
ioIIydIts he, IT,. ~ ,e ais, az az - S
ing such arrangement. the principal one being
that it is difficult to preserve permanent secrecy of
such publications
ARMY WATCHING FOREIGN PRINTs.-The
War Department continues to receive many trans
lations from the 400 army officers who possess
knowledge Of foreign languages Formerly for
eign documents filed away in the military
information division in the original text and We're
practically inaccessible. but the plan started
of sending foreign publications TO officers, who
turn translations of all valuable matters. Now
there are about thousand translatons Of i'm
portant documents which useful in a military
way. The army obtains these translations without
officers interested in reading them in the
their professional study. All the languages
which contain anything in a military way viii now
be translated with the exception of the Chinese
and Japanese. None of our army officers have mas
tered these languages. These transatons form
the basis also of the periodical bulletins OF mill
tary comments. Pertinent extracts made by
the editors and are appropriately classified.
NEW-YORK WEST POINT VACANCIES.-An-
nouncement is made at the War Department Of va
cancies which will exist at the Military Academy
in June 1906, tc the credit OF eight NewYork dis
tricts The places may be filed by the members
Of the next Congress and nominations may be made
at any time at the convenience OF the members.
The districts in which the vacancies occur the
2d 10th nth 18th 18th, 18th, 18th and god Senator
Depew has n vacancy at large in the State which
VIII I'LL
MORE FLOATING DOCKS.-The subject of float
ing drvdocks for the naval establishment is likely
TO come before The department soon. although it is
not considered that there is much chance of doing
anything IN the direction Of Congressional authority
for building such docks. ut least at the coming
session At the time it is realized that the
floating dock is coming 10 have strategic value
which gives il a right a prominent place ia the
equipment Of the feet. The new dock destined for
the Philippines station has already demonstrated
its use the ships in active service. and is con-