Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-07-15
ARMY and navy

Assurances that the entire Pacific
fleet would assemble in San Fran
cisco for the Portola Festival, Octo-
Der 22 to Is, were given W. ID. Fem
nimore Of that city by Secretary OF
the Navy Daniels.
Mr., Fennimore is member Of the
festival committee, and president OF
an association OF San Francisco basi-
ness men, whose middle name Is
Get Busy" His special mission to
Washington is to complete arrange.
ments for the festival. and he was
much pleased with his interview with
Mr.. Daniels. He took lunch with
Congressman Kahn yesterday, and
discussed matters pertaining to the
celebration.
The Portola Festival this year will
be the four-hundredth anniversary OF
the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by
Vasco Nunez de Balboa" said Mr..
Fennimore. "The first was held in
1909, but this year 1t Is cooperating
with the management of the Panama
/ acific Exposition to. be held In 1915.
performance to be held then.
There viii be representatives
present from every nation whose
ships sail the Pacific. for the festival
is more than local affair. It will
be opened by grand ball, and we
have rented practically every dance
hall In San Francisco for dancing
during the four days, and our athletic
carnival will be one Of the most com
prehensive ever held on the coast
- -
Henceforth selection and not SEMI
ority Will govern promotions In the.
army whenever the president desires
10 exercise the privilege. At any
rate the attorney general has Official
Iy informed the president that any
officer in the army, regardless Of his
rank, who stands at the head OF his
grade may be superseded by those
below hIm whenever his record, in
the opinion Of the authorities, Is such
as to disquanfy him for promotion.
That opinion was based on the case
of Maj. Beecher Is. hay OF the quar-
tefmaster corps, who. had Deen
charged by the house committee on
expenditures in the war department
with undue political activity In the
interest or the Republican party.
lnasmuch as Ray stood senior in
his grade and directly in line for pro-
motion to an existing vacancy in the
Quartermaster corps, the president
formally requested the attorney gem
eral to inform him whether the act
OF 1890 governing promotions in the
army. below the rank OF brigadier
general should be construed as
mandatory upon the president 10
appoint the senior officer in the grade
OF major to the vacancy, II In his
opinion the record or the officer has
been such as to indicate that ne Is
disqualified for promotion but under
the law cannot be eliminated either
through the agency Of retiring
board of court-martial."
- %
Officers of the United States Army
attached to the Philippine constabu-
larry have been receiving 10 per cent
added to their salary for the last ten
years without warrant in law, accord
ing to decision handed down by the
assistant controller OF the treasury,
w. w. Warwick. The practice Is TO
be stopped. Mr.. Warwick does not
say thar the money so paid in the
past must he refunded, as this Ques-
ton was not before him for q ruling,
but IL IS expected that this will be
the effect of the decision.
Compliance with the act" which
requires accounting officers of the
treasury to pass upon new laws, and
the submission of their rulings to the
controller of the Treasury, Assist
ant Controller Warwick recites,
would have prevented the difficulty
now arises by reason of the allow
ance for ten years of compensation In
excess of what is now held to be the
law of 1903"
The law passed June 80, 1903, pro-
yided for compensation for army OFF,
GERS in foreign service by the addi-
ton of ~ per cent to their regular
pay. Assistant Controller Warwick
holds that army officers in the Philip
pines constabulary do not perform
service in the line of their duty as
United States army officers, and are
therefore not entitled to receive the
extra compensation.
- -
Secretary Bryan has instructed the
American legation at Panama City to
use its good Offices to have modified
a Panama law excluding Chinese
from Panama. Chinese in the Gen.
trail American republic made direct
appeal to Secretary Bryan, and their
case also was formally presented to
the State Department through the
Chinese legation here.
JACKSON, Miss. The supreme