Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-03-14
HOOVER TELLS 0F CRITICAL PERIOD OF SHIPPING IN WAR Declines, However, to Com ment on Military Plans
 or Policies NOT COMPETENT TO
 DISCUSS THE NAVY Food Administrator, Called at Re- quest of Admiral Sims, Talks
 But Sidetracks
 Issue

~s~''''
 Issue
 ! Washington, March 13.--While re- fusing to comment on military plans or policies, Herbert Hoover today told the senate committee investigat- ing the navy departments conduct of the war that owing to shortage of l food and heavy sinking of allied mer- chant ships by German submarines, conditions abroad were critical from l April, 1917, until September.
 MT. Hoover was called before the committee at the request of Rear Admiral Sims, who asserted that he was best qualified to support his 1 contention that the allies were los ing the war when the United States joined them and that only vigor- 1 ous campaign against the U-boat could bring about victory.
 Asked if the navy department could not have offered more con- plete cooperation by sending more vessels to the critical zone, MT. Hoo yer declined to express an opinion except to say that he supposed "ev- erything was done that could be-" He told the committee that he did not consider himself competent to testi- fly regarding technical military and naval matters and that his bnsi- ness was to ''get food to the allies" MT. Hoover expressed the belief that American participation turned the scales in favor of the allied at the critical period of the war, al- though it was incorrect to say that the United States won the war. Efforts to prove that the navy's failure to keep him informed of inn portant developments and changes in policy caused his associates on the allies naval councils to believe he was not in the full of confidence os his government, formed the burden of Admiral Sims testimony today. He ment of vessels to the Azores Islands without first informing him of the departments plans.
 Sims preceded him. Sims told the committee the first intimation he had that he was not in the confidence of the department came after he submitted his first re- ports from London. He learned then, he said, that an agreement had been reached by the navy department and British and French naval off cials in Washington early in April ! regarding the disposition of Amer ican naval forces. The terms of this agreement were cabled to Admir- ! al Jelicoe by the British representa- tives on April 13, 1917, he declared. Yachts Vs. Subs.
 The officer also charged that ! without notification the department arranged with the French naval at tache to send 10 or more yachts to combat submarines off the French coast, and to establish two naval bas- es on the French coast; dispatched six destroyers from Boston, sent 100 l canson to France on naval colliers, started campaign in the newspa pers for North Sea barrage, dis patched the fifth destroyer squad ron from St. Johns to Queenstown and sent four additional destroyers from New York. Some of these vessels, he said, ar rived overseas before he knew of their allocation to his command. In most cases, he said, he received belated information from French and | British sources, but seldom in time | to make proper adjustments and ar IduECIuGItS lOI IcCeitluS LIC SHlpS' The admiral declared that while he protested continually against the de- partment's failure to keep him in- | formed, the situation was not rem edied.
 That great confusion existed with regard to the establishment of the basis and that the department itself did not know what it wanted was 1 demonstrated, he said, by a letter he received early in August from the officer assigned to, the command of the Bordeaux base. This officer. he said, wrote that "the situation in France is not clear to me-" and that when he had asked upon being order ed to the commasd of the base, what 1 his duties were he had been unable to obtain any information.
 ''I asked the same question and got the same answer from all the other heads in the navy department" the officer said. "After waiting without further received orders to pro- ceed with a party of eight persons, but saill no instructions"
 1 A similar condition existed with regard to American naval aviation l forces sent abroad, Sims said. l Admiral Sims testimony was in- terrupted Hoover refused to com ment on naval policies, altohugh I questions along that line by Chair man Hale.
 Hoover on Stand.
 A feeling of the utmost anxiety as to the final outcome of the war l prevailed in France, Italy and Great | Britain in April, 1917. because oi the great shortage of food supplies Mir. Hoover said. At that time, he stated, France and Italy had bread stuffs sufficient for only three ol four weeks and the German subma- rine campaign was making heavy in roads on ships en route from the Uni. l ted States. He added that the greatest problem of the United States was maintaining transporta' tion is the allies against the U-boat campaign.
 "It is fact is it not that the al
 lies would have lost the war if thu submarine campaign had not beer checkedT asked Chairman Hale. "They would have lost it in a mo
 ment almost" replied Mir. Hoover