Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-01-24
.BROWNSON' REASONS
Admirars Letter on Hospital Ship WrangIe Sent to Congress-.
PAPERS ASKED FOR BY HOUSE
Former Chief of Navigation Bureau Arsues That There Us Nothing In Training of Medical Officers That Fit Them to Command Vessels.

Training of Medical Officers That Fit
 Them to Command Vessels.
 Washington, Jan. 24.-The speaker laid before the house of representatives the response of Secretary of the Navy Metcalf to the resolution introduced by Representative Gill of Maryland calling for the correspondence relative to the designation of staff officers to naval commands.
 The new and Interesting matter in this correspondence is long memoran- dunn by Admiral Brownson, written when he was chief of the bureau of navigation and dated Nov. IS, nearly a month before the admirals resigna- tion.
 In this memorandum the admiral submits the reasons why, in his opin- ion, the department should reverse it's decision to commission the Relief in command of a medical officer He holds that whether hospital ships or not, such vessels as the Relief must accompany fleets to fulfill their pur- poses and to do so must be navigated and handled in the same seamanlike manner which is required for all ves- sells to assure safety on the high seas.
 There is nothing in the training of q medical officer, the admiral contends, which fits him for such command. It requires just as skillful a navigator to pilot hospital ship as 1t does to pilot a man-of-war. Indeed hospital ship is simply a ''seagoing vessel having a large hospital on board"
 Existing regulations. the admiral pointed out. gave medical officers all necessary authority to control and care for their department on board hospital ships.
 ''Yet the surgeon general seems to believe,' says the admiral, that the navigation, safe conduct and general administration of a seagoing vessel are secondary as regards the responsibili. ties of command. Telegraph operators or cable engineers are not put in con- mand of cable ships, nor are postmas- ters put in command of mail steamers. A battleship can with propriety be call ed floating forts but artillery officers are not it for command of them. Long experience with merchant crews and officers on board naval colliers, tank ships, transports, supply vessels, etc, show that officers of the merchant marine do not perform this duty as efficiently as naval officers" .
 Admiral Brownson cites his expert ence in command of the Asiatic sta tion to support this assertion, having there thoroughly tested ships with fun merchant crews, with full naval crews and with merchant crews and officers and one line officer of the navy in command. He found that the last sys. ten was the least efficient. Notwith standing the best efforts of the navy department to sharply define the func tions of the officers. complications con stantly arose regarding navigation and administration. The Iris was run ashore. and the Nanshan was the scene of a disgraceful disturbance in the harbor of Hongkopg as the result of clash of authority.
 If hospital ship were merely a floating hospital, securely mOored and not called upon to move from point tc point, 1t would perhaps not be well, ia Admiral Brownson's opinion, to have any sea line officers on board. But h. points out that the hospital ship is a vessel that sails the ocean, and in ad | dition to the navigation of the vesseI | and administration thereof the disci | pline Of the crew must be maintained | and he says there can be no complete | control over the discipline of the per | sonnel on board hospital ship when 0 | part of it is amenable to one set of | laws and the other to the navy regu | latlOns, the officer in command being | an officer who by law is forbidden the right of exercising military command except in his own corps and the mas ter of the ship being a civilian with nc legal right to control men In the navy