Evening star., 1925-02-13
MITCHELL REMOVAL
WOULD BE "DEADLY,"
GREATEST ACE SAYS
Continued from First PageD

air force. Lieut. Ofstie did favor the
establishment of an air corps in the
Navy in which aviators could fly for
the remainder of their careers. He
! said he was not in accord with the
aviator to sea duty with ships at any
time.
Gen. Mitchell told the committee
yesterday that the United States
! Navy is at the mercy of any third
class power that has had the fore
sight to equip itself with airplanes
He said that Great Britain was with
in $4,000 tons of the Washington Con-
ference limit on aircraft carriers
having five of these ships. while the
United States has only one which
cannot be called a carrier. but a sea
going landing place" The Navy, he
said, is nothing but fine array OF sur
face ships which could not resist at
tack from a "nork Of planes"
The general was presented with
statements of Capt A. w. johnson
assistant chief OF the Bure au of Aero
nautics and in charge of the naval
| end Of the 1921 bombing, to the effec,
that he had disobeyed orders in drop
ping more bombs than ne should and
leaving his base without orders, as
previously agreed upon. The general
made sweeping denial of the
charges and declared the Army not
only carried out the letter. but the
spirit of the orders.
Charses Confusion.
Lieut.. Clayton l. Bf-seu of the
Army Air Service. commander of one
OF the Army air squadrons in the
tests, then was called and seated be.
tween Gen. Mitchell and Comdr Ken.
meth whiting of the Bureau OF Aero
nautics, who, in testimony following
Gen. Mitchell, maintained that the
Army had failed ito play ball" de.
rlared the Army flyers had ceased
bombing as soon as the stop signal
was given, and also asserted that
orders issued by naval officers at the
time OF the tests were confusing.
While Comdr whiting declared the
tests were in the nature Of ordnance
experiments, Gen. Mitchell declared
we were out to sink the battleships
and our myers would have gone
through anything to accomplish the
objective" =
Capt. Johnson did the best he could
In the exercises" said Ger- Mitchell.
but l am inclined to think that he
was taken to task for PERMITTING
US TO sink the ship. This. OF course
is based on hearsay evidence, bu,
l am told that one admiral said to
Capt. Johnson that IL the Army hadn',
sunk the ships, nobody would have
known they could be sunk" Pressed
by the committee for his authority
Gen. Mitchell declared an admiral
whose name he did not care to men.
tion. had told him. but. he added
that he thought this admiral would
De willing to testify on the matter
before the committee
Capt. Johnson in testimony several
days ago denied the assertion of Cen.
Mitchell in q magazine article that his
hagship Shawmutt was forced to 20
into port at knots an hour owine
to the effect of . nearby bomb ex.
piosion on the ships condensers
Asked by Representative O'Sullivan
OF Connecticut who told him about the
condition Of the ship, Gen. Mitchell
replied: Capt. Johnson told me him.
self. Everybody on the ship talked
about 1t, and / never heard anything
to the contrary"
In the House caucus room last night
Gen. Mitchell gave a motion picture
demonstration designed to show the
value of aircraft in warfare, display
ing a number of reels showing actual
scenes Of airplanes in service and ex-
planning the purport as they were
thrown upon the screen. Mr.. Perkins
prior to the showing of the first pic
ture, explained that the exhibition
was in no way connected with the
work Of the aircraft committee.