The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-16
NEED TRANSPORTS
GENERAL STAFF CALLS ATTENTION
 TO WEAKNESS.
Declares That at Present Army Would ne Unable to strike quick Blow Against Warning Foreign
 Power.

Washington. Jan. 1i.-A remarkable exposition of the fatal weakness or the army transport resources in case ot war is contained in paper prepared oy the general stan. transmitted py ses- retary Taft to Senator Gallinger' chairman of the Merchant Marine Com mission in charge of the shipping bill now pending before the Senate
 Tn the course of it's work in prepar- inc in time of peace for war, the gem eral stan has discovered that even the present limited military force eouid unless there should be an fmmediate and great increase in the number oe American ships suitable TOT the 'ran atst port service It is pointed out that foreign shipping could not be drawn upon in time of war because of the neutrality of laws so that under pres euk conditions, "the first quick blow 10 very and increasingly important, can not be struck at all"
 Incidentally the staff criticises with the greatest freedom the conditions not be transported over the sea sh or to defend our insular possessions under which the first little army was transported to Santiago to begin the Spanish American war.
 The reply of the war department has been prepared by a special commit tee of the general staff and is trans mitted to Secretary Taft by Lieutenant General Chaffee. chief of stan. rms report stated that two sizes or Hsr chant steanships are desirable for transport service, ships of $500 tons and of $500 tons gross register. The npesd which both the navy and the war dspartments have determined upon as asgirable for troop transports is a sustained sea rate of twelve knots.
 gro make this speed with certainty and with economical coal eonsump- tson," says the present report, the ahius should be designed for B trtai sneed slightly in excess of twelve knots"
 stsamships of e.50e and of $500 tons arA preferred because, it is conceded to be indispensable to the best re- sults that each ship shall carry tactical unit of troops with It's com plete equipment and supplies"
 This tactical unit is the infantry reg irnent or a battalion Of englneers. pat taIson of Infantry,Na d squadron or cav a1ry. etc. To embark a division would require ten s,0O0 ton ships and nine E.00n ton ships. With the present strength of the regular army two such divisions could be made ready to em- bark In fifteen days. hence twenty Of the larger and eighteen of the sma'l nhips available in fifteen days would be sufficlent for such an expedition. As ~,,ch an expedition may be neces- earv from either the Atlantic or the Pacifc coast. the report urges that there should be on each side a num- Der of suitable ships afioat, put II engaged in foreign trade It IS not probable that one-third of those on either ocean could be obtained ana made ready fin fifteen days
 RmA
 aAgsumlng this ratio,'' says the re- mort Of the general staff. it follows that to provide suitable ships for a ranfd movement of two divisions from aFthav coast there should be not less fhau sixty of the larger and fifty of the smaller size afioat in the Atlantic ana the same in the Pacific waters, or 1aO of the larger or 10S of the smaller size in all, an aggregation or 22S ves- sefs"
 Tshe report declares that no such fleet as would be needed for an over seas expedition could be furnished out of the present resources of the Ameri- can merchant marine.
 ssrhe official list" it points out, "of merchant vessels for 1904 snow seven tv-four sea going ship of 4,0OO gross tona and upwards, with an aggregate fonnaxe of 400, 900. Of these ships eteht are substantially of the smaller and nine of the larger size described The others vary in size and propor- tion to such an extent as to make 1t unsafe to adopt them.
 s"rhe divison would require l16,0OO gross tons of transport and two di- visions--the force previously designa- ted as a first expedition to be dis patched at once will require 2S2,OOO rross tons selected from this list of snips Tn short, to strike the quick ~4~-.v 1S a forca eorresDonding to our s,arrnauent military establishment would require practically all the Amer ican shipping of suitable character in Atlantic waters and more than the en-