Evening star., 1925-03-03
RETIRED ADMIRAL
RAPS NAVY STAND
Aircraft Probe Closes With
Sickbed Statement on Stat
us of Capital Ships.

appointed to find out what is wrong
with the Air Service closed its de-
Hberations yesterday and incorporat-
ed in its record parting shot at the
Navy by Rear Admiral William F.
Fullam, u. S. N, retired.
Representative Frank r. Reid, Re
publican, Illinois, late yesterday aft
ernoon sought to stay the hearings
one more day and give Brig. Gen
William Mitchell, assistant chief OF
the Army Air Service, a chance to
answer his critics. but the commit
tee adopted a motion offered by Rep
resentative Aiming S Prall. Democrat,
New York, that the hearings be
brought to a close. Mr Prall said
there could be little hope expected for
the life of a joint resolution now in
the House rules committee granting
the investigators special authority TO
report next December unless some
indication of a conclusion of the com
mittee's work were given.
Testimony at Bedside.
While the committee was hearing
witnesses yesterday afternoon Rep
resentative Randolph Perkins, Repub-
ncan, New Jersey, the committee ex-
aminer, was at the bedside of Ad-
@1lTdl + ullaIn at MS nome, 1 % ElB NJ
eenth street, obtaining the views of
the admiral on the question of air
defense. The admiral is recovering
from a severe attack of pneumonia
and was unable to appear before the
committee.
Declaring his statements ARE made
deliberately and no apologies will be
made for then" the Admiral, accord
ing to the record of his testimony
Ia n
the cause "of our mistaken naval poll
icy is. unquestionably due to the fact
that our naval minds have been
shackled by conservatism. He ad-
vised the committee to ask the Navy
Department for the report of Admiral
Coontz on the last maneuvers in the
Caribbean Sea for the defense of the
Panama Canal You will find that
sufficient to prove ten times more
than everything l shall say" he said.
In this report the commander in
chief states that the fleets speed was
reduced to ~ knots, and even then,
many of the auxiliaries failed to ar
rive with the fleet at it's destination"
Wants Further Probe.
ct honestly want" continued the
Admiral, ito make the one recomman-
dation of all others that will bring
us somewhere, that joint commits
soon as practicable to investigate and
get down to bedrock on this subject.
You have not had the evidence yet
and you will never get it"
1T may be said" continued the
admiral, that our fleet as 1T now
exists is quite useless for the
exigencies of modern war. 1t cannot
defend itself against modern naval
forces. Still less can it leave the
70 al
1t must, therefore, to avoid the
humiliation Of disastrous defeat, re-
main at home under the protection
of our coast defenseS and of the air
force of the Army and the Navy,
which can alone protect 1t from the
air power of an enemy"
The admiral praised Gen. Mitchell's
interest in aeronautics and his fight
to bring it before the public. II
have no brief for Gen. Mitchell" he
said He needs none. He can take
care of himself But there is an
obligation to give credit to those
who deserve it. Had ii not been for
Gen. MitchelIs persistence there
might have been no proper demon
strat'on of the power that will be
Inevitably welded by airplanes in
modern war on the sea-"
Attempts to Dfscredit.
Explaining he had attended every
bombing test in 1921 and 1923 against
battleships, the admiral charged
that every effort was made by con-
servative naval officers to discredit
the effects of the Ostfriesland test"
The recent report of the special
board of admirals appointed to deter
mine the relation of submarines and
aircraft in the development of the
Navy also was sharply criticized by
the admiral 1T is believed, he de-
clared, that this report, coming as it
does with the weight of approval by
officers of such high rank, with it's
failure to fully recognize either sub
marine power or air power as the two
dominating forces that limit the opera
tions of navies in offense and defense
in the future, fails to remove the
menace to our naval progress and fails
to guard the safety of the United
States as a Nation"
In Dominating Position.
Air power concluded the admiral,
SIS of comparatively recent origin, but
In the past four years it may be said
to have reached dominating position" "
Representative Roy o. Woodruff of
Michigan, an ardent supporter of the
movement that brought about the in
vestigation just closed, today de-
clared the answer to the question
"What is the trouble with the air
services?" is: "The Army has been
guilty of gross negligence in pur-
chasing airp anes. The planes pur-
chased, testimony has shown, were
not the best that could be bought.
The tests on the rejected planes were
run by Army engineers and can be
considered reliable. For example,
j. V. Martin in 1919 submitted de-
signs for a plane that could carry
5000 pounds of bombs for 2.700 miles
without a stop, while the Barring
bomber, recognized as the greatest
aeronautical monstrosity in the
world, can carry 1000 pounds of
bombs for only 500 miles. The Bar
ling was bought by the Army"
The committee yesterday aftern Don
heard Representative Magee of Penn
sylvania, who brought to the stand
with him Lieut.. St. Clair Street,
chief of the airways section, Army
Air Service. Mr.. Magee SAID he
brought Lieut.. STREET. along to "ex-
plain the injustices being done the
Air Service by the single promotion
list" He declared he will introduce
a bill in the next session of Congress
which will create a separate Air
Service promotion list. Lieut.. Street,
In mis- testimony declared men who
went into other branches of the serv-
ice at the time he entered the Army
and even later now rank him by
hundreds and thousands of files.
The injustice" is due, he said, to
the length of time required to train
an air service pilot. Deaths in the
air service, while creating vacancies
on the promotion list, do not even
give an aviator a promotion in most
instances, Lieut.. Street, said. Rep
yesentative Magee said there were 2;
,searns in naval aviation last year