Evening star., 1923-10-21

claimed. are being held by the gov
ernment to be claimed by their right
ful owners. The bonds were sub
scribed through the Treasury. are
fully paid for, and although Maj. x
w. Boschen, finance officer in Wash
ineton, has the name, organization
/ and latest address of these 1900 sub
scribers on file in the adjutant gen
erals office, efforts made to locate
the men and deliver to them their
/ bonds has up to the present time been
futile.
After completion of temporary duty
in London, England, Liett. Col. Frank
j: Griffin, Signal Corps, has returned
| to duty in the office of the chief slgl al
! officer. Col. Griffin with Col. George ,;
| Gibbs, Signal Corps, were sent abroad
| in connection with the placing of con
| tracts for new sections of the Washing
ton Alaskan cable.
The Navy's fight for new ships.
needed az Il part of the general
/ boards program for rounding our
( the treaty navy to conform to the
5-5-3 ratio, will be waged in Con-
gresS.
Elimination of this item from the
budget, as well as other items for
which there has been no legislative
! authorization. brings the Navy De
| partment 'and the director of the
; budgets figures much closer, as prac-
, ucally half of the "cut" recommended
by the budget is automatically dis
. posed of. Numerous conferences.
| however, this week, .in an attempt To
| get together, have had little apparent
effect of the deadlock as the Navy has
found no further material savings
| that can be made to meet the budget
| figures of s292,000,0o0 as total ap-
propriation.
/ y strong fight will be made. how
ever, to get speedy action in Con-
| gress for the eight new cruisers, six
| river gunboats and six submarines
! fhe department believes to be vitally
needed if the fleet is to be rounded
! out to treaty strength.
! Another matter eliminated from the
! budget for which the Navy Will seek
/ Congressional action, is that Of mod
erniZing the .battleships. Under the
/ treaty terms this is permissible and
work of strengthening the deck pro-
| lection against aerial attack and OF
| putting bliSters on the side Is looked
upon as of vital necessity. This has
no connection with the appropriation
granted at last session for elevatIng
the guns, which has not been used
as "A result of the controversy which
later arose over it. No statement
has been made as TO whether the de-
partment will seek authority from
Congress for the gun elevation work,
InDuBn the COnceISuS VI 'i'IiipIl -
that there is no violation OF the
treaty involved.
High commendation has been given.
the commanding officers Of the battle
ships Pennsylvania, Arizona, Missis-
sippi and Nevada, comprising division
| I, for its engineering performance
. during the last year. In the COM
mandatory letter il was said, in part:
''It gives the division commander
the highest satisfaction to feel that
he has taken command of the divi-
sion which stands so high in the en-
gineering competition for the year.
The fact that the ships in this di-
, vision stand. respectively. one, two.
four and five out of all of the ships
of their class In the Navy speaks
volumes for the efficiency of the ma
terial and personnel of this command.
This is a result which | do not re-
member having been equaled during
my previous experience in the Navy.
II can only hope that the result in
engineering for the coming year Will
equal the results of the last year, and
feel sure they Will / am also con-
fident, with some attention to details.
that the gunnery performances of
this division will be little, if any, be-
hind their engineering performances.
y take this occasion to express my
gra tification for the good work which
has been performed under my prede
cessary and sincerely hope that ! will
be able 10 maintain the command in