Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1921-02-16
House Cut
IalAi
Appropriation as Passed Will
Mean Scrappins of All
Naval Aviation, Of.
ficer Declares.
Harms Commercial Plans
BY ARTHUR SEARS HENNING.
Chicago Tribune Omaha Bee Leased Wire.

BY ARTHUR SEARS HENNING.
Chicago Tribune Omaha Bee Leased Wire.
Washington, Feb. 15.-Naval avia-
ton will be scrapped, the navy will
be unable to defend the country and
it will be necessary to abandon the
air defense OF the Panama canal, il
the naval appropriation, as passed
by the house yesterday, becomes a
law with its limitation of the funds
for the navy's air service to less
than 100000.
This was the assertion today OF
Capt. T. T. Craven. director OF
naval aviation, in commenting upon
the house appropriation of $6,ol5,-
45l, compared with the department
estimate of $35.0o0,0O0.
Captain Craven said that although
it is now proposed to build two
naval airplane carriers at a cost OF
$35 100000, there is no provision for
the design, manufacture or devel-
opment Of the equipment they arc
to carry.
The bill virtually amounts to the
destruction OF naval aviation. said
Captain Craven, and its destruction
will mean perhaps a fatal blow to
commercial aeronautics and the air
craft industry without which it is
not practicable to have adequate
aerial defense.
Long Time Necessary.
1t will require from a year to al
year and half to begin to obtain
equipment, he said, even it appro-
priations were immediately available.
Unless the senate increases the
naval aviation appropriation" said
Director Craven, I'VE will be COM
pelled to relinquisl, Cocosolo, the
naval air station from which the
aerial defense of the Panama canal
is conducted. Cessation means ex-
posure of the canal to attack from
the air, and if attack ever is made
it is certain to be made first through
aerial bombardment.
The aviation detachments serving
with the Atlantic and Pacific fleets
cannot be maintained. Present
equipment consists, for the most
rart, Of planes left over from the
war. Under the bill as it now
stands, we have not sufficient funds
to install modern radio on these
planes. The planes themselves, for
the most part, wifi have to be junked
before the end of the year.
Giant Dirigible Doomed.
The project to construct one OF
the worlds largest dirigibles-thc
Z-R-I--in the United States (work
on which had already begun will
have TO be abandoned. Competitions
in naval aircraft design which were
entered into by the American air
craft industry will be- terminated.
The result will be serious en-
barrassmcnt, possibly fatal injury,
to the lighter and heavier-than-air
aircraft industries i'll the United
States, to which we must look for
development of our designs and the
OF our equipment.
Even the operation of the great
rigid Z-R-2 purchased abroad at a
cost of $2,500,000 will be limited to
the Atlantic coast, as the plans for
an airship terminal i'll Southern
California will be killed. This means
that the Pacific coast will be de-
prived of the principal element IN
long distance aerial defense.
Adequate Protection Needed.
In pleading for adequate appro-
Chief of Engineers Beach
told the committee: There is reason
to believe that our outlying posses
sions on the Pacific and especially
Panama, would be attacked i'll case
OF hostilities before there was any
declaration OF war and we feel that
those localities should be provided
with certain guns and such fortih
cations that they can be safe against
any sudden or unexpected attack"
Asked if our forti6cations are bet
ter than ever, General Beach replied:
mo, sir; relatively, | would say
no; because the construction and de-
velopment of armament on board of
vessels has brought IA and 16-inch
guns into use while our fortihca-
tions were practically designed with
the 12-inch gun as being the heaviest
that was likely to be used.
The recent developments in ord
nance have placed our fortihcations
behind in the scale Of efficiency
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