Evening star., 1925-02-14
ADMIRAL TO DENY
REPORT CHANGED
Shoemaker, Accused of "Fix-
F. ing" Statement, to Ap-
pear Before Probers.

Absolute denial will be made by
Rear Admiral Shoemaker, chief of
the Bureau of Navigation when he
appears before the Lampert investi-
eating committee this afternoon of
the charges that he blue penciled''
statement, which was to be issued
under Gen. Pershing's signature, in
order to give the American public an
erroneous idea of the air bombing e
tests held off the coasts some months
ago against former German battle
ships. Admiral Shoemaker will ap-
pear before the committee at O'Clock
and will have with him a COPY of his
testimony before the Presidents air.
craft investigating commission. which
is the basis for the report, which has
not yet been made public by the
President.
Admiral Shoemaker was charged
yesterday with suppressing informa-
tion designed for the public in testi-
mony given under oath by Lieut.. Col
w. G. Shauff1er, Air Service Reserve.
Col. Shauff1er declared that when
presented with a statement for the
press which was to be released under
Gen. Pershings signature Admiral
bit of IT.. My God. we can't let this
out! 1t would ruin the Navy" Col.
Shauff1er then said the statement was
blue Denciled" to such an extent
that upon completion there was alb
solutely no resemblance to the orig
inal statement"
Details OF the bombing and the
, manner in which 1t was performed
by the Army Air Service will be de-
faf III Nd n i
Shoemaker, who said that it was alb
| solutely necessary for those inter-
ested In the matter to have these de-
tails before they could get a clear
picture of the entire situation.
Admiral Shoemaker today said, and
he will tell the committee this after
noon, that he did not in any way
| change the report on the bombing &
which was brought to him by an
Army officer, and intended as a state
ment to be issued by Gen. Pershing
over the latter's signaure. The charge
that he revised it to give an err
roneous impression is entirely with
out foundation, he said. When this
statement came to him, the chief of
the bureau of navigation continued,
1t did not give any of the naval side
of the bombing matter. so hei added
with a blue pencil two paragraphs.
These paragraphs, which the admiral
displayed this morning to a repre-
sentative of The Star, pointed out
that the German ship was weak in
many respects. Much of the piping
had been torn out. leaving holes in
the water-tight bulkheads, and, in
fact, the water could freely flow from
one compartment to another. The
water-tight integrity had been large
ly destroyed, SO that a bomb any
place along the side and below the
armor belt would be sufficient to sink
the vessel.
Admiral Shoemaker said that he
thought such a statement was neces-
sary to give both sides of the question,
and these were not modern battleships,
their decks not even being armored as
the modern vessels are to prevent
aerial attack. He said that the state
ment was returned to Gen. Pershing.
who seemed to considr it fair enough
to make public
Statements Not Recalled.
Admiral shoemaker further said
that he discussed the matter this
morning with his two aides and that
they did not remember his having
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