Arizona republican., 1916-03-31
HUNT HEARS STACEY REMOVED;
 STACEY IGNORANT IF II YET

statement, by Adjutant General Charles w. Harris, was the principal feature of yesterdays developments in the Ma tiOnal Guard muddle that is interesting Arizona. Preparations for the court martial of Captain C. V. Gulley, de- posed leader of Company A were under way in the office of the adjutant gen. eral yesterday. Col. Harris stated that although it is within the power the court martial to exclude everyone from the court room, it was his opinion that there would be no attempt to hold secret sessions, and that certain civil- ians were to be admitted. In his opinion there will be no attempt made to secure from the press, the sources of information used as the basis of the expose of conditions in the guard The trial will be held at the capitol Mon- day.
 The offer of The Republican to print a statement or any statement Col Harris might see fit to give out, was accepted yesterday, after several days of hesitancy on the part of the ad- jutant general. The following is his statement:
 AS a result. of the failure of the companies at Phoenix to have more than hand full of men present for the inspection placed the officers on the unassigned list to perfect an OrganiZa- tiOn. have the support of the Phoenix officers themselves in this move with the exception of Captain Gulley who possibly supposes that my action is a criticism of himself and no one else. Such is not the case. Captain Gulley has been an enthusiastic officer and has given a great amount of time to the guard but has not maintained a company. l can and do compliment officers for their willingness or ability but no officer can be considered ef- ficient in the National Guard if he can not maintain . company. That is his duty and when he fails in that he is of no value either to the state or the United States as any reasonable man will agree prejudice asice.
 The attempt to bring Captain Noble or Captain Mullen into the Phoenix controversy is only in furtherance of the plan to discredit the guard in other places These officers should have been consulted if the real truth was wanted instead of a garbled rumor. L have every reason to believe that Captain Noble will meet all require ments with ID" company at Mesa. The action taken at Tempe was after con- sultation with Captain Mullen and for the protection of Captain Mullen under his bond.
 Tt is unfortunate that the PhOeniN companies with the amount of advice and instruction they have had from the inspector instructor are in the con dition that they are. ! feel that the citizens of Phoenix are to a certain ex- tent to blame collectively for not sup porting the local officers. If thc-criti cisms diracted at myself had been true, that l was trying to inject politics, into the guard, l would say that the com panies of Phoenix, with the exception of Co. 'F' certainly needed something injected into them. If the citizens of Phoenix are satisfied that thirty men should be the strength of their com
  strength Of 120 they will support this attempt of certain interested persons to make this move for efficiency q political move. sAss
 "The attempt of certain persons to inject politics into the guard is re- sponsible for the statements that have recently been published in the Phoenix nn nerS [ rarret very much fhiS at = tempt to make a mountain out of a mole hill just as was recently done in California in thf Seventh Regiment. That the National Guard is being used for political purposes is not true and l is a statement that would naturally be made by irresponsible persons to cover I their real reasons for vicious attack on the National Guard. It is the same old trick that a thief uses to cover his own tracks. When about to be caught he cries Stop thief and while the by-