Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-18

southwest There Is still much cleaning
and painting to be done at the armory
and on the dock, and the small boats are
soon to be put overheard for summer
practice drills.
! 1t had been planned last Sunday to
complete the painting of the small boats
which are now on the battalion's dock,
but the arrival Of the large four-inch
gun from the Washington navy yard
made it necessary to put much time on
installing this in the armory. The gun
and mount weigh several tons, and it
was quite a job to place 1T in the ar
mory. where the naval militiamen will
be able to get much practice in pointing
drills and in training gun crews.
| The big gun was set up in the quar-
tiers of the I'd Division. and soon the
four divisions will be assigned time by
Commander Joseph A. Dempf. command
ing the battalion. for training purposes.
The local naval militia finished third in
its target practice while aboard the bat
| tleship Rhode Island last year. and every
effort is to be made to have the organic
zation finish first this year.
Considering the lack of training which
! the men had last year. Commander
Dempf said they did exceedingly well.
| and with training with the big four-inch
drill gun this year it is expected they
Will do much better.
The U. S. S. Sylvia, training ship
for the local naval militiamen, is
scheduled to leave her dock at 10
o'clock today for practice cruise
down the river, probably as far as In
dian Head This will be the first prac-
tice cruise on which the vessel has
gone since she returned from the Nor
folk navy yard, following her annual
overhaul.
While the vessel is down the river a
detail of men Will paint the small
boats so that they will be ready to
put overheard next Thursday night.
Plans had been made by Lieut. F. w
SiSourney, executive officer to have
electric lights put on the dock last
Thursday night, so that the men could
| soon after the assembly. ordered the
men dismissed in view of the fact that
President Wilson had named the day
as holiday.
The Navy Department is still holding
up number of commissions, giving
promotions to eight members of the
Naval Battalion. The examinations
were held about six months ago and
the officers regularly nominated by
Brig. Gen. George H Harries. com
manding the District of Columbia
militia.
AS two of the promotions were to
fill vacancies caused by the discharge
of two officers the department then
held the commissions up pending a de-
cision Of the judge advocate general
of the navy as to the legality of the
discharges, The officials of the Judge
| advocates office, after holding the
matter a number of weeks, admitted
that they were not in a position to
give a decision, and the cases then
came back to the District militia for
the opinion of the Judge advocate of
that organization. who ruled the dis
charges were legal.
After the lapse of six months the
local naval militia officers are plan
ming to call to the attention of the
Navy Department that section of the act
creating the District of Columbia Militia
which also applies to the Naval Battalion,
which says:
That all officers shall be commits
stoned by the President of the United
States. on the recomme ndatio of the
commanding general"
Officers of the local naval militia
point out that this section leaves the
discretion to who shall be officers with
the commanding general