The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14
2 BILLIONS ASKED
 BY HEAD OF NAVY
(Continued From Page One.)

O0ntlnued From rage OHe.) the 5-5-3 does not prevail. The navy department reported to the House of Representatives on May 21 last that our treaty ratio had fallen from 5-5-3 to 5-4-3 because of the impaired con dition of the boilers on certain Of our older battleships, condition which since has been remedied on all but the Florida and the money has been avail able right along for placing the Flor ida in condition to go into the battle line. It has not been spent because the department felt that it would be waste of money if later the vessel were converted from a coal to an oil burner
 Plane Weakness Barred
 Modern battleships have the power of resisting bombs carried by the type of airplanes possessed by the United States army, Major General Patrick, chief of the army air service, said in testifying before the house committee investigating aircraft problems.
 Tests on the hull of the uncom- pleted battleship Washington off the Virginia capes recently, he said, proved that the army bombing craft were ob solescent and should be replaced with bigger and more powerful ships capable of carrying bombs which would be ef- fective against modern enemy capital ships.
 The United States, he said, had de- yeloped types of bombing planes which equalled any in the world, but the ma jority of the bombers now in service were of an older type.
 General Patrick pointed out that
 I,t makers of aircraft and aircraft bombs was in progress similar to that which has gone on for years between armor for battleships and armor piercing pro- iectiles for great naval rifles. Bombs of size that could be carried by the present day army bombers were of suf- ficent power to sink or cripple any battleship of q pre-Jutland type, he said, but the experiments against the post-Jutland Washington had made it obvious that more powerful and heavier bombs would be required.
 Details of the experiments conducted against the Washingtons hull have never been revealed by the navy depart ment, which regards the data as highly confidential. General Patrick's state ment today, however, threw additional light on the subject, as there had been no official announcement that the ship had been attacked from the air with heavy bombs and had withstood the attack She was sunk by the big guns of the Battleship Texas.
 Conditions Remedied
 Taking cognizance in it's report to the house of previous reports as to the unsatisfactory conditions of the capital ships, the naval appropriations commit teel said thhese conditions had been remedied except with respect to one battleship, the Florida. The work on that craft, it said, was being held in abeyance pending decision as to whether she is to be converted from a coal to an oil burner.
 "The program of modernization of certain battleships and of new construc tion of cruisers and gunboats, carried in the so-called modernization bill just passed by the senate" the report added, obviously should not be appropriated for in advance of budget estimates and thorough hearing.
 Tn the meantime, the committee feels, looking at the situation from many in fluencing angles, that there need be no misgivings as to our naval forces gener- ally in an hour of need"
 Must Build Ships
 Until there is an international agree ment limiting within reasonable bound the additions to the portions of the fleet not covered in the arms treaty, Secretary Wilbur said the only method of maintaining the treaty ratio of the re- spective fleets will be by building program commensurate with that of the other signatory powers.
 Conflicting reports that have come from varying sources as to what should i or should not be done with respect to the navy are regarded by some mem bers of both the house and senate as making necessary thorough going in vestigation by congress before additional money is appropriated for modernization or new construction.
 Such investigation will be proposed before the senate naval committee next Tuesday by Senator King, democrat of Utah, who will urge that congress does not have sufficient information for it to outline comprehensive plan for the navy or for future naval developments. Some of the things he would have con gress inquire into are:
 What Probe Will Seek
 Why the five-five-three naval ratio treaty has not been lived up to.
 Whether Great Britain and Japan