Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-10
SAYS CONGRESS
 MUST RAISE PAY
 TO SAVE THE NAVY
Admiral Washington Says De sertion, designations are
 Many

Washington, April 9.-Congress must increase the pay of both of- ficers and men if the navy is to be "saved from disaster" Rear Admir- al Washington, chief of the bureau of navigation, declared today before the senate committee Investigating the Sims-Daniels row.
 Failure of congress to act, he said. has resulted in wholesale assertions of enlisted men and the resignation of hundreds of officers. The result is, he declared, that the navy is in "a bad way.''
 Foreign countries have increased the pay in their navies, he said, ad- ding:
 q understand the increases abroad are being paid largely with money borrowed from the United States"
 Two years before the United States joined the allies in the world war the navy general board prepared a comprehensive plan for war against Central Power ''of Europe, Rear Admiral F. F. Fletcher today told the committee. He was replying to Rear Admiral Sims charge that when the United States entered the war, the navy department did not know plans for fighting Germany.
 Admiral Fletcher was member of the general board during the war, but was engaged for the most part with his duties as member of the war industries board, the priorities bosrd and the council of national de- fense.
 Explaining that he wished to con- ment on certain specific charges made by Admiral Sims before tes- tifying regarding his duties as a member of these various boards, the witness first took up Sims criticism that the navy was not prepared for WET in April, 1917. No navy ever was or ever will be fully prepared for war in the eyes of everyone, the admiral declared, but the American navy when it entered the war was "just as we'll prepared as any oth- CT navy in the world when the great war burst forth." he asserted. Admiral Sims declaration that the navy department should have inn mediately sent all available destroy CTS and small craft abroad to. fight submarines sounded "plausible and convincing" the witness said. but such course of action would have left the American coasts and ports full of invaluable vessels and car goes open to attack by German sub- marines that demonstrated in 1917, their ability to cross the ocean, me- mace the United States coast and re. turn to lGermany, unaided. Such an attack, he asserted, would have caused great alarm in this country and have affected sending any small vessels to the ewar zone.
 Admiral Fletcher characterized the work of the war industries board as "one of. the great achievements of the war" and declared the members of the board complimented highly the eff cien,cy with which the navy depart ment conducted the business and of it's participation in the war.
 No loss, of shipping or failure of the navy to transport troops to France prolonged the war for sim gle day. the admiral asserted. Ad- miral Sims assertion that the navy department is responsible for the loss of two and a half million tons of shipping, the prolongation of the war for four months. fifteen billion dollars of debt and the loss of 5O0,- 900 lives" was based upon assump- tion and had no foundation in fact the officer declared.
 "The whole conclusion reached in the accusation is built upon the flimsy foundAtion of . hypothetical condition and is wholly without val ! ue," he said.