The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-13
DANIELS MUST SHOW LETTERS
 FROM ADMIRAL
Senate Demands Fiske's Communications On Pre-
 paredness Question


 make public a letter from the Navy General Board of August 3, 1914, and a letter. from Admiral Ffske of Nov g, 1914, the question of prepared ness.
 Senator Lodge said the statement of the General Board was a discussion of the state of the navy and recon1- mendations as to the condition of prcparedness.' The Fiske report, he | explained, was a warning of the un- preparedness of the navy.
 Various efforts have been made to get Secretary Daniels to make public these letters Representative Britten of the House committee on naval af- fairs asked him to insert in the hear fngs the two communications. Mr. Daniels replied that he would not do~ it.
 F'It seems to me-" he said, "that there are some confidential conmuni- cations passing between the General Board and the Secretary of the Navy that ought not to be made the subject of gossip. The General Board is the confidential adviser to the Secretary, and object to the gossip banded about to whether they wrote me a, letter at a certain time or whether wrote them a letter at a certain time.'
 Secretary Daniels last night had not decided what action he will take as a result of the Senate resolution. The letter from the General Board was written at the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. It recommended that the American fleet be put a war foot ing immediately because of the dan ger that this country might be drawn into the war In order to put the entire navy in commission approxi- TnateIy 100000 men were asked for. Preparations should be made at once to place at the disposal of the navy enough merchant ships to handle sup plies, the report stated.
 The F1ske letter, which was writ ten three months afterward, was dic- tated by the same considerations. In addition to urging immediate action to place the navy on war basis it severely criticised the condition of the fleet and the general Navy De- partment policy.
 The name of Secretary Daniels was hissed and that of Admiral Fiske cheered to the echo at today's meet ing of the Navy League of the United States as the result of MT. Daniels's refusal to permit the Admiral to ap- Naval Strategy publication of which the Navy Department had au- thorized
 |. The paper prepared by Admiral Fiske was read by William Mather Lewis Mayor of Lake Forest, III.
 
 the Navy Leagues annual convention were lively affairs. The paper pre- pared by Admiral Fiske was read by William Mather Lewis, Mayor of Lake Forest, III.
 In his paper the admiral declares it was "a coherent policy of develop ment and a wisdom of strategy estab- lished which more than any other fac tor has made Great Britain the mis- tress of the seas, and almost the mis- tress of thew rorld; while Germany's navy has expanded smoothly, synmet- ricalIy, purposeful1y, and in 20 years become the second power and perhaps the first in efficiency in the worId-''
 Admiral F'iske declares that the reason for a. higher degree of eff ciency on the part of Germany and other naval powers is the develop ment of their naval establishments along lines carefully devised before hand while in our country no method at all is apparent least, no logical method
 In this connection tlae paper says: E. s'It is true Congress consu1ts the report of the Secretary of the Navy and asks the opinions of some naval officers; and it is true that the Score tary of the Navy gets the opinions of certain naval officers, including the General Board, before- making his renert But both the secretary and Congress estimate the situation from their own point of view, and place their own value on the advice of naval officers.
 esAnd the advice of these naval aff1- cers is not so valuable, possibly, as it might be, for the reason that it Is really irresponsible. since the advisers know themselves it will not be taken seriously
 Henry A. Wise Wood of New York,
 od a policy for the United States startled delegates to the convention by holding up the yellow peril
 eff a Japanese fleet conveying troop transports should appear off the coast of California. or adjacent Mexico. with the command that we abandon our Asiatic exclusion policy or fight, and the Panama Canal were blocked, doubt not we should instantly aban- don our exclusion policy" he said.
 Germany, Japan and Russia were placed by MT. Wood in the active group of sea-power nations W1rh one or more of which the United States Ioiglt become involved in war. The logic of the situation, he said,t was that the United States maintain in the Atlantic a naval force superior to that of Germany, in the Pacific force superior to that~of Japan and that we shall endeavor to protect the Panama Canal from destruction.
 Charles G. Curtis of New York urg- CT on the convention the necessity for establishing a defense commission with general staffs for the army and navy. N
 s. stanwood Menken of New York president of the National Security league, scored the Hay Army Increase Bill as "a menace to the country" and as a tsviolation of every recommends ton of every board of experts
 s4Csongress should know continued Mir Menken that American defense less may already be foredoemed; that they have wasted precieusf months; that their delays are into1erable, and tha tiff we are attacked theirs will be the responsibility for the wreck and ruin of our eeuntry-and yet we call