Evening star., 1915-02-21

1
| ed among officers of the Ma
| tional Guard Of the District
| of Columbia over the fact
| that Lieut.. Col. Almon l..
| Parmerter. United States Army, for
| the past three years attached to the
| District of Columbia militia as adju-
tant general. has been recalled from
| his duties hero to serve with the 10Th
Regiment Of Infantry, now on duty at
Galveston, Tex. The change. accord
ing to orders of the War Department,
is to take effect April 1, next.
Col. Parmerter's successor has not
yet been named. and it Is probable that
Brig. Gen. George H. Harries. COM
manding the District of Columbia mi
litia. will be called into conference at
the War Department before any one is
selected for the place of adjutant gen.
eral.
The so-called Manchu law is RESPONSE
BILE for the relief of Col. Parmerter.
This law requires that officers of the
army must serve at least two years
out of every six with troops in the
field. Col. Parmerter. April 1. will have
completed exactly three years service
as adjutant general of the local Ma
tional Guard. Previous to his assign
ment here he had been on detached
duty. making up the four years which
the law allows on such service
Col. Parmerter expressed regret that
he had to leave Washington, but he
declared the orders were no surprise
to him He said that he knew he
would soon have to go back to troops
under the terms of the so-called Man
chu law.
Brig. Gen. George H. Harries. com
manding the District of Columbia
militia. has been informed of the or
ders received by Col Parmerter, and
the former probably will be in Wash
ington within the next few days to
confer with the War Department re-
garding the assignment of the adjutant
generals successor.
Col. Parmerter has been called away
from the local organization right in
an important period in it's history. He
has been engaged for some time on plans
for improving the efficiency of the or
ganiZation, orders covering . part of
which already have been issued. One is
the order covering the new method of
issuing of clothing and taking a part of
the heavy detail in connection with this
work off the company commanders. The
other was the order requiring the in
spector general to make regular inSpec-
tions of the organizations composing the
local National Guard with view to Civ
ing each an efficiency rating at the end
of the year. Any company found below
a certain average will be required to
make good its defects. Although this
plan was the idea of Col. Parmerter. he
will be gone before he has even had a
chance to see how it works. although
every one familiar with the order feels
provement in the guards efficiency by
reason of the fact that it furnishes a
check on the individual officers and COM
mandS.
Col Parmerter also. very recently
started an enlistment campaign and is
making every effort to increase the nu-
merical strength of the guard with pa
triotic men. He also developed the re-
serve corps during the past year. and
has been endeavoring to build it up to
an organization that would have to be
reckoned with in time of war.
In his efforts to increase the guards
strength, Col Parnerter has had in mind
several matters for furnishing enter
to increasing the interest and the en-
listments, as well as keeping the atten-
tion and interest of the men after they
enlist. During the past year there has
been a marked improvement in the at
tendance. and at the last encampment
the organization took away the largest
number Of men in its history
Officers of the local National Guard
composing the new Quartermaste-
Corps We're in conference during the
week with Col. Parmerter, outlining
the plans of this newly organized
branch of the guard. The duties of
the various officers composing the corps
were defined, and 1t was agreed among
all that the new corps will result in
increased efficiency for the quarter
master. pay and subsistence depart
ments of the guard.
X
The field hospitals and sanitary de-
tachments of the local guard were
given their annual inspection during
the week by Maj. Hess, Medical Corps,
T. S. A, nspector-instructor,a assigned
to these organizations. and Maj. Harry
Coope, inspector general, n. G. D. c.
big improvement was shown in the
shooting of all companies in the inter-
company shooting matches of the Sd
Battalion, 1st Infantry. last week
Company KS team put up the high
score to date-S72.
Company K defeated Company I,
score S72 to $40: Company NJ winning
from Company L by score of 613 to
497. The high individual scores were
made by NJ g. Atkinson of Company
K and Howard Yeatman of Company l.
Following are the scores:
COMPANY X