Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-30
GEN. BUTLER TRIAL
HAS NO PRECEDENT
Peace-Time Court-MartiaI to
Be First of Officer Above
Lieutenant CoIoneIcy.


ley D. Butler, commandant at GUAM
tico, famed general of the sea SOL
dierS, recipient twice of the Congress
Sional Medal of Honor, and unquestion-
ably the most talked-about United
States Marine. The gathering together
of the high-ranking officers of the Navy
and the Marine Corps to sit in judg-
ment on their associate, who has brought
the United States Government into
controversy of international proportions
by remarks about Premier Mussolni
which he does not deny, will not be easy,
for Hard Boiled" Butler, darling of the
enlisted men of the Marine Corps, is
ranked No. l on the Marine Corps list
and is outranked only by Maj. Gen. Ben
L. Fuller, commandant of the Devil
Dogs.
Court-martial regulations provide that
wherever possible at least half of the
officers who constitute the board shall
rank the officer on whom they will sit
in judgment, and that where the
exigencieS of the service permit one
third of the officers on the board shall
be Marine officers of general rank
Since Butler is No. l on the Marine
Corps ranking list, it is probable that
several retired Marine Corps generals
will be called upon to temporarily come
out OF retirement and sit on the board,
while part of the board undoubtedly
VIII be made up of Navy officers holding
the rank or rear admiral and higher.
Full Board May Serve.
Unofhcially the Navy Department be-
IleVeS that in such case as the Butler
case the larger number of officers will
be called to sit, and that the full board
Of Is prescribed in Navy regulations Will
serve as judges OF the stormy petrol of
NV.rl LII
scribe that there shall be between and
Is officers on the court, but the diff
Guilty of recruiting so many ranking
o1ncerS on active duty may lead to the
recall OF some officers now retired to
sit on the court. When the general
court-martial will begin is problematical.
but 1t Is held probable at the NAVY
Department that it will begin some time
late In February. Immediately after
Secretary of the Navy Adams announced
that Gen. Butler was to face a general
court-martial the intricate machinery
OF the department moved to the task
OF drawing up charges and specifica-
tons against the officer for whose utter
ances the State Department has issued
an oInclal apology to the italian Gov
eminent. These charges will take sew
eral days to prepare, Navy Department
o1nclaIS declare, and possibly week or
IO Gays may elapse before they can be
served on Butler. Butler then will be
gwen time to draw up his reply. Mean
Whlle the contents of the letter the
Marine Corps general transmitted to
the Navy Secretary in explanation of
the speech which caused the inter-
national incident have not been made
public. 1T would be like him." his in
Inmates at the Navy Department saw.
not to retract his statement one iota."
1naSmuch as Washington has the
largest concentration of general officers
OF all the military services, it should
be easy to find ranking officers tn sit
on court-martial board in anv ordi-
nary case. But the high rank of Gen.
Butler adds difficulty to the task of the
department in finding officers of rank
nigh enough to I'LL the specifications of
the regulations governing court-mar-
tlals. The procedure in the Butler case
Is very unusual and has only one prece-
dent in the history of the Marine Corps
That was in 1920. when Lieut.. Col. An
thony Gale was called before a general
court-martlal and subsequently was
cashlered from the service.
Mitchell Case Recalled.
Only once in recent years has an Off
Ger holding the rank of general ap-
peared before a general court-martiaI.
Ihat was the celebrated case of Brig.
Gen. William Mitchell, assistant chief
OF the Army Air Corps, who was
charged in October, 1925, with insub-
ordination and unbecoming conduct. be-
cause OF his attacks on the military
aerial services, and resigned from the
Army Immediately after President
Cooldge, on January rs, 1926, approved
the findings of the court-martial and
suspended him from the service for
i've years.
Two high-ranking officers of the NAVY.
however, have come in for official repri-
mands in recent years. Rear Admiral
Thomas p. Magruder, then commandant
OF the Philadelphia Navy Yard and of
the 4th Naval District, wrote an article
that appeared in the Saturday Evening
Post in September, 1927, for which he
was officially reprimanded by Secretary
Wilbur and ordered sent home from his
post to await orders" Not until two
years later was Admiral Magruder given
command, and then he was ordered
10 the command of the feet base force.
Neither in the Magruder case nor in any
OF the three cases involving Rear Admiral
William S. Sims did a court-martiaI sit
in Judgment on the alleged misdeeds
OF these officers, who openly spoke their
minds about conditions and received of
flclal reprimands. During the years
from 1900 to 1907 Sims, then a COM
mander in the Navy, made repeated
statements, in and out of print, attack
ing the efficiency of the Navy and its
lighting units. He declared, among
other things, that British war vessel
could Outright five United States vessels
OF equal class. Then, in 1911, came his
| famous Guildhan speech in London, in
which he declared blood is thicker than
water and received a reprimand from
President Taft.
Subsequently. in June, 1921, Edwin
DENLY, then Secretary of the Navy,
made Admiral Sims the object of an
| other reprimand for another speech by
him in London-the so-called "Sinn
Fem" Speech-which aroused the Brit
ish government. These are the only re-
cent peace-time cases involving repri-
mand and court-martials of general Of
ficers above the rank of colonel. The
Butler case Is entirely without prece-
dent, according to the Navy Depart
ment, for the musty old files of the sea
| service fail utterly to reveal a general
court-martial order for such a high
ranking officer in time Of peace.
Names to Be Announced.
Within a day or two Secretary Adams
will announce the names of those Off
GERS who will sit in judgment on But
ler Almost coincidentally with the an
nouncement of imposition of a general
court for Butler, the Navy issued pub
LEGATION with the title 'The United
States Navy in Peace Time" in which
high praise is given to the officer who
will soon face a general court-martial.
Probably no finer example OF sue
cessful arbitration by American officers
has been demonstrated in recent years
than the peace-YnakinQ achievements