Evening star., 1936-02-02

from time 70 time
It pointed out that the Nava! Re-
serve was first authorized in the act
Of March 3, 1915, which provided for
a Naval Reserve to be composed of
men discharged from the Navy and
assigned to one or the other Of two
classes according to length Of time
between service in the
Navy and Naval Reserve. This law
provided that members of the Naval
Reserve should, in time of peace, be
required to perform not less than one
active service on board a YES
sci of the Navy during each year OF
service but not to exceed two months
in any one year. An inappreciable
joined. This act was super
seded by the act Of August 20, 1916.
Prior to this, it was asserted, the
only civilian component in training to
augment the Navy upon the outbreak
of war was contained in the naval
militias of the various States. These
naval militias were not under Federal
control, or, at least, very loosely so.
When the Naval Reserve Force was
organized under the provisions Of the
act of August 20, 1916, the naval mil
itias of the various States when called
into the Federal service became the
National Naval Volunteers. This act
provided for a Naval Reserve Force
of several classes, depending upon the
qualifications of the various indivld-
uals and the mobilization duties to
which assigned. The United States
entered the World War so soon after
the passage of this act that no Naval
Reserve activities as such were car
ried forward prior to mobilization.
Reservists as fast as appointed or en-
listed were sent direct to active serv.
ice. In 1918 the National Naval VOL
unteers were amalgamated with the
Naval Reserve, so that there was
then one Federal organization which
included within its scope the entire
civilian component making up the
wartime strength of the Navy.
After the termination of the war
and demobilization of the Naval Re-
serve, effort was made to organize it
in accordance with the plan con-
templated in the act of 1915 as mod
ified by the act of 1918 and later
acts. Many defects began to show
up. Amendments designed to remedy
those defects, while they did help
to some extent also led to confusion in
directions due to adverse
controller decisions.
On September go 1921, the Navy
Department disenrolled classes 2, 8,
4 and S of the Naval Reserve, as no
funds were available for their main
tenance and administration.
The department requested that the
officers and men of the Naval Re-
serve so disenrolled transfer to class
6, the Volunteer Naval Reserve, until
such time as the Naval Reserve could
be reorganized on a scale commen-
surate to the appropriations that
could be made available. On October
/, 1921. therefore, the Naval Reserve
consisted of class /, the Fleet Re-
serve; class 6, the Volunteer Reserve.
and certain members of classes 2. 3, 4
and who were exempted from disen-
rollment by the Secretary of the Navy.
On october /, 1921, a board of
which Rear Admiral Thomas Wash
ington, U. S. NJ, was senior member,
convened for the purpose of recon-
mending changes in the organization
and administration of the Naval Re-
serve. The recommendation of this
board were said to have been very
comprehensive and complete. Prac-
tically all the recommendations made
were eventually included in the Naval
Reserve act of 1925. The general
policies and principles expressed are
to great extent still applicable to the
administration of the Naval Reserve.
The board said that it required
about three years to reconcile the di-
versity of opinion of all interested
parties before the proposed bill finally
became a law on February %, 1925.
The board points out that a study
of the hearings before the Senate and
House Committees on Naval Affairs
shows not only the intent of the Navy
as to what the Naval Re-
serve law was to be, but also indicates
that all parties interested in the bill
under consideration were united in
their opinions. Some excerpts as to
the regular Navy's opinion of the
Naval Reserve are taken from the
statement of the then Assistant Secre-
tary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt,
as follows:
II would like to preface my remarks
by this statement, that there is a ten
dency, all over, to regard the Naval
Reserve as apart and by itself, and
not part of the Navy. That is
wrong. The Naval Reserve is, in our
an integral part of the
United States Navy, and a very i'm
portant one. 1t is just as much
part as-indeed, more so than-let us
say, the f1rst-class destroyers which
We have got out of commission at this
in Philadelphia.
1.-THE Naval Reserve is vital neces-
sity for the Navy in time of war. OF
course, it goes without saying, any
body in any service realizes that
morale is an essential part of our
service.
"Our general intent in drawing it
was that we should get as competent
Naval Reserve as possible at the least
possible cost to the Government. In
the military or naval service. however,
that relationship which I have given
IN my remark there must hold; that
is, that the first consideration must be
Of what is competent for national de-