Semi-weekly herald., 1915-07-22

ling if they are to be at all effective,
has raised the personnel to point
of Importance it never before held in
all the history of naval warfare.
A modern battleship costing S15,-
100000, and capable, if ably handled
and fought, of putting an enemy out
of action in a brief quarter of an
hour, if it be undermined and under
differed, or if its officers, fresh from
the naval academy, are lacking in sea
experience, may easily have its eff
cheney cut down seventy-five per cent
or more.
One of the most able and enthusias-
tic of the officers of the Atlantic
fleet, speaking of the shortage of
officers and the fact that very young
men from Annapolis, because of this
shortage are filling positions on the
ships which should be filled by off
GERS of higher rank and long expert
ence, stated to the writer that, in this
respect, the Atlantic fleet at the pres
ent hour is fully 40 per cent below
the standard of full efficiency.
"a rather strong statement" you
say. Nevertheless, it is amply sus-
tanned by comparison with conditions
in other navies- in that of Germany,
for instance, where we find that there
is one officer for every nine enlist
ed men, whereas in our navy there
is only one officer to every seventeen
men. Last year, moreover, with
total number of enlisted men of 81 900
Germany possessed 2,615 warrant of
ficers, whereas our navy with about
$4,000 men, had only some 700 war
rant officers. The German navy
Furthermore, had 40 flag officers last
year against 1S in the United States
navy, and she had a total of 35l
captains and commanders as against
only 1872 in the United States navy.
For information as to the fatal
shortage of men, amounting to some
$4,000, we cannot do better than turn
to the testimony of Admiral Badger
formerly commander in. chief of the
Atlantic fleet, as given recently be-
fore the house committee on naval
affairs. In answering the question re-
garding the number of officers and
men needed to fully man all the ships
of the navy with crews, the admiral
stated that there are required $4,000
Not all of these would be with the
fighting fleet, however, for 6,S49
would be required for the hospitals;
prisoners guards, travelling, cts, the
insular force, navy yards and shore
stations, radio stations, recruiting
stations, training stations, station
ships and for manning navy yard tugs
etc. Adding these 6,S49, to the 64,-
900 required for the ships Of the navy
gives total of 7O,S4O men. At pres
ent there on the roll 52,293 men, and
the difference 1856, represents the
, additional enlisted men required fully
to man all ships with navy crews.
, On the subject of shortage of line
officers, sAdmiral Badger testifie
that on January list, 1914, we had
l, 793 line officers on the active list.
He stated that to officer the fleet for
war and provide for the necessary
shore establishments, without any pro-
vision for casualties, 2,176 line officers
were required. The difference 933
represents the present shortage of the
line officers. The shortage of staff
officers is in proportion.
And be it remembered in the pres
ence of these figures that it takes ten
years to make naval officers of all
around efficiency.
So now, gentle reader, follow very
closely what Admiral Badger has to
say as to administration policy.
''The number of men needer for the
navy depends very largely upon the
policy which the administration may
decide upon in administering the navy
: how many ships it is proposed to
maintain in commission ready for war
and how many ship are to be kept
in material condition in reserve, ready
to be used in case of emergency. If
the policy of maintaining all the ships
of the navy available for war of the
first and second line is adopted, then
we are short of men in the navy now.
Those ships of fighting value held in
reserve should, in my opinion, have
Il
to be able to keep the ships in goot
material conditions, but also to permit
of such organization and drill, includ-
ing target practice as will keep them
thoroughly trained for immediate ser
vice in war"
| And yet it has been recently decid-
ed by the administration, we under