Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-25
A NAVAL SENSATION
Continued from First Page

policy to place staff officers in command
of naval vessels.
Admiral Brownson handed his resigna-
ton to Secretary of the Navy Metcalf
yesterday. and with 1t a long statement
OF his reasons for wishing to retire from
active duty. Mr. Metcalf took the letter
or resignation and the statement to the
White House yesterday afternoon. The
resignation was accepted Immediately
and the President designated Commander
Cameron McRae Winslow as acting chief
OF the bureau of navigation.
Action Purely Voluntary.
Admiral Brownson's action was purely
voluntary, and the decision with which
he acted is not only characteristic of the
officer, but will serve to emphasize the
importance Of the question in naval cir
cles. Admiral Brownson set forth his
views fully in his letter Of resignation to
the President. The President has thus
far refrained from making public the cor
respondence, but 1t is believed that he
cannot long withhold it from publication.
This trouble grows out of the same old
problem of the relations Of the line and
the staff of the navy. which has created
no end of friction in the past.
The assignment of any one but line
officer to the command of naval YES
sci is thing heretofore unheard of in
is resented by line officers. When Sur
geon General Rixey's novel suggestion
was brought TO the attention of Admiral
Brownson he pointed out that the COM
mand of naval ships, whether they are
battleships or hospital ships fitted out for
belligerent service, should be placed in
command of officers of the line, who are
qualified by training in Navigation ana
seamanship to handle such vessels.
Admiral Brownson stamped the R1xey
md
nounced it ridiculous from a naval point
of view. The President, however, ap-
proved the Rixey recommendation. AS
he regarded that the Rixey idea was not
for the best interests of the service, AID.
miral Brownson decided that there was
nothing for him to do but resign.
Surgeon General Rixey is a staff officer !:
not line officer Members of the Medical
Corps are also staff officers of the navy.
Line officers almost without dissent, take
the position that only line officers should
be given floating commands. They con-
tend that medical officers should not be
given command of ships, for the rea-
son that the handling of ship as such
involves the training of line offlcer In
navigation, seamanship and international
law, and that the handling of a snip is
not a medical question such as comes
within the purview of the duties OF med
ical officer. During the recent confer
ence at The Hague considerable atten-
ton was devoted In the discussions to the
consideration of the status of hospltal
ships as belligerentS.
Steps were there taken with the view
of limiting hospital and Red Cross SHIPS
as much as possible to the scope or their
work as hospital ships. and the care with
which attempts were made to frame regu-
lations of that kind at The Hague rather
indicated that hospital ships should be
treated as belligerent vessels subject TO
capture unless carefully handled with re-
gard to the exigencies of warfare.
His Naval Career.
While resigning from his bureau af-
and title on the retired list of the navy.
He was born July s. 1915. at Lyons, n.
Y, was graduated from the United States
Naval Academy in 1865, and has been
actively engaged in naval work ever since.
The incident in his career which brought
him into greatest prominence occurred at
Rio de Janeiro in 1898, when, in command
of the gunboat Detroit, he steamed under
the guns Of the Brazilian rebel battle
ships Aquidadan and Esmeralda, and,
despite the protests Of the big tronclads,
conveyed two American merchant vessels
the blockading line, thus break
ing the blockade and putting an end to
the naval rebellion under Admirals Mello
and De Cana.
Since then President Roosevelt and Ad-
miral Brownson have been close friends.
When Mr.. Roosevelt was assistant secre-
tary of the navy they were particularly
intimate. In the Spanish war Admiral
Brownson commanded the auxiliary
cruiser Yankee. Afterward he com
manded the battleship Alabama, and was
of the Naval Academy.
W Zen ne reached the rank of rear adj
miral he commanded the armored cruiser
squadron which brought President Roose-