Evening star., 1937-09-26
SPECULATION RIFE
: ON DOCKS HEAD
President May Go Into List
of Junior Captains for
Smith Successor.

AS the four-year term of Rear Ad-
iniral Normal M. Smith as chief OF
the Navy Department Bureau Of Yards
and Docks closes December %, there
is considerable speculation to his sue
cessor 1t Is assumed Admiral Smith
will not be rendered another term,
although he would be able to COM
plete it before reaching the retiring
age.
All of the captains of the Civil En-
gineer Corps in the upper part OF
the list will reach the retiring age
by four years from December. The
supposition is, therefore. that Presi-
dent Roosevelt may make the selec-
ton from the Junior captains, or that
he even may go down into the list
of commanders.
Many vessels under construction
for the Navy continue to lag in theii
rates of progress, so that their sched-
uled dates Of completion hardly will
be realized unless there is marked
acceleration of the work. Two of the
1,500-ton destroyers of this years
program were assigned last week te
the Boston navy yard for construc-
tion.
Nothing definite has been an
nounced as to the relief of the u
S. S. Raleigh as flagship of squadron
40-T in European waters other thar
that the present plans are to use the
Omaha for that purpose.
With the commissioning of the
Navy's five new battle cruisers, the
first of which, the Brooklyn. has al
ready been launched, the fleet Marine
force will be materially reduced
With all of the new vessels in COM
mission, l84 men will be needed tc
fill the five ship detachments and
about rs additional men for shore &C.
tivities. Despite this drain on the
feet Marine force, no increase of Of
ficers or enlisted men was authorized
for the 1888 fiscal year.
ARMY.
Col. w. E. ProSser, S. c., who was
promoted last week to be brigadiel
general of the line. is the first Office
of the Signal Corps in more than {
decade to attain that distinction. i
is largely due to the efforts of Col
ProSser that training film instruc.
ton, now employed by the Army, ha.
reached the present high state O.
efficiency. The officer now taking thi!
instruction at the Academy of Motor
Picture Arts is Capt. William w. Jer.
vey, S. c.
A series of special lectures, of in
terest to medical officers of the Regu
lar Army and Navy, as we'll as Il
physicians and surgeons of the Dis
trict of Columbia. will be given dur
ing the present basic graduate course
at the Army Medical School, this city
between now and the end of this cal.
endar year. Last night, September 25
DR. R. D. Lille of the United State
Public Health Service, discussed tn
pathology of virus diseases with specia
reference to cell inclusions. Col.
Siler. M. c., director of the Army
Medical School, will open the October
series with lecture on dengue fever
on October S. The remainder of The
series will be as follows: October
IL, poliomyelitis,. by Dr.. Charles Arm
strong, National Institute of Health;
October 10. Rocky Mountain fever. b!
DR.. Roscoe Spencer, Public Health
Service; October 81. pneumonia. b,
DR.. L. D. FELTON,, Johns Hopkins Uni
versity: October 25, malaria. by DR.
l.. l.. Williams, Public Health Serv-
ice; October 20, meningitis, by DR.
James P. Leake, Public Health
Service.