Evening star., 1927-12-07
SHIP GUN RAISING
IS LEFT TO HOUSE
Committee Cuts $940, 900
Request, Questioning Con-
fIict With Naval Treaty.
BY the Associated Press.


The House will be called upon in the
next few days to determine whether
elevation of the large guns on Ameri-
can battleships would be in keeping
with the spirit of the Washington
arms limitation treaty.
Because Of the far-reaching effect
the decision might have on other sig
natory nations, the House appropria-
tions committee has refused to take
the responsibility upon itself and has
passed the question along to its parent
body.
In reporting the first deficiency bill
to the new Congress yesterday, the
committee eliminated a budget rec.
ommendation of $940, 900 for elevation
of the big turret guns on the battle
ships Oklahoma and Nevada, saying
that by so doing the opportunity
will be thus presented to the House
for clear-cut determination of the
specific question of gun elevation"
Appropriation Eliminated.
"In view of the fact that an appro-
priation of $6,500.O00 was made in 1923
for increasing the range of turret
guns of 13 battleships and repealed in
1924, and in view Of the further fact
that there is doubt in the minds Of
many as to our rights to elevate these
guns under the terms of the treaty.
the report by Chairman Madden said,
the committee has eliminated the
sum of $940,000."
The resembling of the appropriation
for elevation of the guns in 1924 came
after Charles Evans Hughes, then
Secretary of State, had vigorously
questioned the advisability of the ac-
ton.
In the last session, however, the
House naval committee again reported
a bill specifically authorizing eleVa-
ton Of the guns and the budget rec
ommendation was in line with TINS
measure, which ultimately became a
law.
Besides refusing to carry out the
cur. elevation proposal, the appropria-
tions committee also turned thumbs
down on the Navy Departments re-
quest for authority to spend S4500,000
from royalties received from the sale
of oil, for the purchase Of storage oil.
Tank Filling Questioned.
The department advised the COM
mittee that it desired to fill the storage
tanks erected at Pearl Harbor, Ha.
waii. which were constructed by the
Pan-American Petroleum & Transport
Co., and the tanks at Portsmouth, n.
H, erected by the Mammoth Oil Co.
'"These tanks, through a decision OF
the United States Supreme Court,
the committee reported, have become
the property of the United States. The
committee is aware of the recent pro-
posals of the Navy Department to ex-
change royalty oil from the reserves
for other oil with which to fill these
tanks, and while such action may be
permissible under existing law, 1t
doubts the wisdom of it at the present
time"
During committee hearings on this
request Chairman Madden asked If it
was the Navy's plan to build up
special fund so it would not have to
come to Congress for money for fuel
oil.
Cites Bureau Suggestion.
Addressing officials Of the Navy's
Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, the
chairman asked:
"What YOU want to do is to stop the
money that you get from the reserves
from going into the Treasury, is 1t not?
What you want to do is to have an
organization of your own independent
of the Government
1--WE just want to use sufficient OF
that money to fill these reserve tanks.
which we could not do If we did not
have it," replied Rear Admiral Charles
Morris, paymaster general. Clyde
Reed, special assistant of the bureau,
said that the proposal for providing
the funds was the suggestion OF the
Budget Bureau" and that the Navy
had drafted a provision which would
have made a direct appropriation.