The Pensacola journal., 1920-04-10
CONGRESS MUST
PAY NAVY MORE
Rear Admiral Washington Says
Otherwise Roster Will Con-
sist of inexperienced Boys
FLETCHER DEFENDS NAVY
Says Well-Arranged Plan of
Campaign Was Ready When
United States Entered War

Washington, April 9.-Congress must
increase the pay of both officers and
men if navy is to be saved from dis
aster' Rear Admiral Washington,
chief of the Bureau of Navigation de-
clared today before the Senate Com
mittee investigating the Sims-Daniels
row.
Failure of Congress to act. he said,
has resulted in wholesale desertions of
enlisted men and the resignation of
hundreds of officers. The result is, he
declared, that the navy is in a bad
way and II conditions continue 1t not
only will be under manned by 1921 but
80 per cent. of those on the roster will
be inexperienced boys.
Foreign countries have increased the
pay in their navies he said. adding:
II understand the increases abroad
are being paid largely with money bor-
rowed from the United States"
The committee was told that the
navy had been going down hill rap
idly since July, 1919, and that the de-
sertions IN the last half of 1919 to-
tailed 1866 men including 1000 petty
officers who had served more than one
term of enlistment. In January the
desertions numbered SOS and February
this time.
Not only are the men leaving, Ad
miral Washington said, but efforts to
recruit the naval forces are meeting
with poor success because of higher
wages paid in other trades and for
service in the merchant marine.
The officer situation also is very
bad" the admiral said. Thousands of
aFficarS n raciOpad Sir1pe he
istice and the designations of 1850
have been accepted. Resignation of
124 regular officers and hundreds of
temporary officers are pending.
The navy medical corps is in the
worst condition in it's history the ad-
miral declared two hundred medical
medical officers having resigned since
the war
Two years before the United States
joined the allies in the world war, the
navy general board prepared a com
prehensive plan for war against a
central power of Europe Rear Ad-
miraI f. f. Fletcher told the commit
tee. He was replying to Rear Admiral
Sims charge that when the United
States entered the war the navy de-
partment had no well considered
plans or policies for fighting Germany,
Many such plans had been made in
the past, Admiral Fletcher said, but
the plan referred to covered every
phase of naval operations under the
assumed conditions of war" 1t dealt
with the mobilization, organization
and composition of the fleet its dis
position and employment, protection of
the coasts bases of supplies the
United States coast and in the West
Indies, routes across the Atlantic and
the enemy's forces and probable
courses of action, he said, and COM
prised nearly three hundred typewrit-
ten pages.
Admiral Fletcher was a member of
the general board during the war, but
was engaged for the most part with
his duties as a member of the war
industries board, the prioritfes board
and the council of national defense.
Explaining that he wished to com
ment on certain specific changes made
regarding his duties as a member of
these various boards, the witness first
took up Sims criticism that the navy
was not prepared for war in April.
1917 No navy ever was or ever will
be fully prepared for war in the eyes
of every one, the admiral declared.
but the American navy when 1t en-
tered the war was Just as well pre-
pared as any other navy in the world
when the great war burst forth" he
asserted.
Admiral Sims declaration that the
navy department should have immedi-
ateIy sent all available destroyers and
! small craft abroad to fight submarines
sounded plausible and convincing"
| the witness said, but such a course OF
| action would have left the America n
| coasts and ports full of invaluable yes
/ sells and cargoes open to attack by
| German submarines that had demon :
| strated in 1915 their ability to cross
| the ocean. menace the United States
mo. +Continued on Page Two)