Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
HOOVER DEMANDS
ARMY AND NAVY AIR
DISPUTE Be ENDED
Services Contend for Right
to Control Coastal De-
tense by Planes.
HURLEY FORCES ISSUE,
ASKING FOR SHOWDOWN
Attorney General Refuses Opinion
Asked by Adams, Indicating
Congress as Final Arbiter.
BY THEODORE C. wALLEN.

President Hoover has asked the Army
and Navy to settle without further
delay their long-standing dispute over
control of the coastal air defense.
Presidential Intervention was invoked
by the War Department, it was learned
yesterday, after reneyed and vigorous
Army protests that the Navy was
duplicating Army bombing aircraft at
Pearl Harbor and Coco Solo had been
ignored at the Navy Department. It is
said to have been suggested that the
Bureau of Efficiency be invited into the
case unless the two services reach an
agreement.
The development forces the issue in
o 10-year struggle, which only recently
has resumed major proportions, behind
the scenes. With the Army primarily
responsible for land defense and the
Navy for sea defense, both are fighting
over the comparatively new field of
air operations above the line where
land and sea meet.
Within the last two weeks Patrick
]. Hurley, Secretary of War, has writ
ten to Charles Francis Adams, Secre-
tary of the Navy, demanding a show
G1DWu. HIS was dlO6I AIbOIGCg SCl4~
eral Mitchell had washed his hands OF
the matter in response to an appeal
from Secretary Adams for an opinion
which might decide the issue. 1t was
also after Hurley had appealed directly
% President Hoover.
Conferences Unsuccessful.
As a result the two cabinet officers
directly concerned have begun con-
ferences to try to settle the issue. APP
parently solution is not yet in sight,
for further conferences are planned,
according to reliable information.
President Hoover's apparent determi-
nation to 60 TO the bottom of the mat
ter as one affecting Government eff
cheney and economy Is expected to pro-
vide unyielding pressure for a definite
result. The President is said to be par
ticularly anxious TO avoid any possible
duplication of costs at time when the
entire Government structure Is being
searched for instances Of needless ex-
pense. However, no public announce
ment on the matter has come from
the White House or either department.
Previous to the Presidents interven-
ton the pressure in the last few months
TO exclude Navy bombers from coastal
bases seems to have come from the
War Department. At any rate, Secre-
tary Hurley wrote Secretary Adams
pointedly on July 26, two weeks ago,
charging the Navy with persistently re-
fusing to lay before the Aeronautical
Board its annual estimates for the FIVE
year aviation building program, now in
its last year.
Underlying this was the basic Army
complaint that the Navy was usurping
Army functions in carrying bombs and
torpedoes in land-baSed scouting or
fncfrN1 Y11oFac Evr11lCfRn rnCnNYaEfhilifU
for bombing enemy invaders from land
based planes is claimed for the War
Department. It recognizes no Navy
right to any such bombing, except from
planes based on ships, contention
which the Navy ridicules as requiring
q Navy scouting plane to go and get
an Army bomber to destroy any raider
discovered offshore in wartime.
1t is a problem in national defense in
which the Army would restrict the
Nays aerial combat forces to the area
over the water and the Navy would
keep the Army's bombers within the
coast lines except in case an enemy
raider ever got through the Nays
defense.
Navy Moves to Dust Army.
The Navy has pressed the latter in
depreciation whenever pushed by the
Army. It has also moved to GUST the
Army Air Corps from Ford Island, in
Pearl Harbor, and from North Island,
of San Diego, now shared by the two
rival air services.
The fact that such convenient land
ing fields are considered essential TO
harbors where aircraft carriers are
based appears to have given the Navy
something of an advantage as to these
islands The Army Is said to have
promised to move of one or two of
them upon completion of nearby fields
Of its own.
The Nays reply to Secretary Hurley's
specific complaint about not submit
ting its annual estimates to the Aero
nautical Board is that the adoption Of
the f1ve-year $3.50. 000, 900 program OBJ
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