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for communication purposes, not justified in the judgment of the committee.

With respect to the Budget increase in this item on account of the Brookhart Act, the entire increase in the naval estimates, apart from the Navy Department, on account of such act is $310,876. In this connection attention is called to a situation that developed after the submission of the regular estimates. Under date of November 13, 1930, the Comptroller General ruled that section 2 of the Brookhart Act requires the salary rates of those employees in the clerical, drafting, inspection, and messenger group in the field service to be adjusted not later than January 1, 1931, from a per diem to an annual basis and within grades, or salary ranges, and at the specific rates, prescribed in the schedules appearing in the classification act. The effect of this decision has not been ascertained up to this time. Manifestly additional funds will need to be provided for the fiscal year 1932 as a result thereof. The committee is advised that supplemental estimates will not be presented until the next regular sesssion in order that more accurate data may be at hand upon which to base them. Until then it will be necessary for the department to permit funds allocated to the pay of classified employees to be overobligated.

Temporary government, West Indian Islands.-The bill carries no money under this head. The Budget includes an estimate of $432,000, but by supplemental submission under date of February 2, 1931 (H. Doc. 730), notice is given that transfer of supervision over the government of the West Indian Islands will be made to the Secretary of the Interior, accompanied by a request that the appropriation on account of such islands for the fiscal year 1932 be provided under the Department of the Interior.

State marine schools.-The Budget and accompanying bill each provide for the continuation of the current appropriation of $100,000. The training ship assigned to the California school, authorized under a State law approved June 3, 1929, was turned over to the Navy for such use by the Shipping Board. The name of the ship recently has been changed from the U. S. S. Henry County to the U. S. S. California State. The vessel is in need of considerable repairs and alterations properly to fulfill its new mission and the committee is proposing an increase of $60,000 in the appropriation "Engineering," and $150,000 in the appropriation "Construction and Repair" for the accomplishment of such work.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION

Recreation for enlisted men.-The Budget shows a reduction of $332,000 under this head. This is the sum by which the appropriation a year ago was increased to bear approximately one-half of the cost of substituting talking-picture for silent-picture equipment. This change has been effected, or will be in the near future, with available funds.

Instruments and supplies.-The Budget increase of $184,091 for the objects comprised by this appropriation is more than accounted for by the proposed expenditure of $210,000 to complete the project authorized last year to provide modern gyrocompass equipment for the battleships Maryland, West Virginia, Colorado, California, and Tennessee.

Naval training station, Rhode Island.-The Budget estimate for the maintenance and operation of this station agrees with the current appropriation of $240,000. The committee has added $31,000 partly to accomplish a number of repair projects having relation to sea walls and breakwaters that it would seem unwise longer to defer. The situations brought to its notice would require a total of $65,000 to correct. The amount allowed will take care of the items of highest priority.

Naval training station, Great Lakes, Ill.-The Budget includes $275,000 for this station, or $4,000 less than the current appropriation. This reduction should be more than offset by the economies expected to flow from the new turbo-generator set to be installed at the station in time to be used during the fiscal year 1932. The new equipment was appropriated for under the head of public works for the present fiscal year.

NAVAL RESERVE

The estimate for this activity is $4,394,365, or $325,635 less than the current appropriation. This is exclusive of the so-called transferred reservists and assigned men, on account of whom $10,264,216 is carried under pay of the Navy. The Budget reduction results from a modified training program for reservists in the seagoing branch which permits of a smaller number of vessels, possibly as many as 13, being employed solely on account of reserve activities. Six vessels have been dispensed with already. Training will be available where vessels are withdrawn, in most if not all cases for the greater part of the year, on destroyers of the newly organized training squadron, which offer training of a superior type to that which may be had on subchasers and Eagles, the types that are being withdrawn. This course will permit of smaller expenditures on account of ship maintenance and of the pay and subsistence of shipkeepers. Practically no change is contemplated in the numbers who will be given training or some form of active duty. On September 30 last there were a total of 7,224 officers and 18,993 men in the Naval Reserve, exclusive of transferred and assigned men. Funds are included for training or giving some form of active duty to a total of approximately 1,670 officers and 9,547.

The committee has added to the estimate $226,470 for the pay and transportation of 70 additional reserve aviators (140 in all) to be on duty throughout the fiscal year 1932, for the reasons previously given herein in connection with the officer personnel situation of the Navy. Planes used by these aviators are a part of the regular Navy quota. Planes used at reserve aviation bases are not so charged but are purchased out of naval aviation funds, which include for 1932 the sum of $807,400 for the procurement of 40 planes for reserve aviation training. The estimate looks to a total of 161 reserve planes on hand at the end of the fiscal year 1932.

Naval reserve aviation training is had at bases at Squantum, Mass.; Valley Stream, Long Island, N. Y.; Great Lakes, Ill.; Seattle, Wash.; Oakland, Calif.; Long Beach, Calif.; Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo.; Detroit, Mich.; and Miami, Fla. The committee's attention was directed to the hangar situation at the base at Squantum, Mass. The hangar is situated so as to form a hazard in the operation of planes and also is in a bad state of repair. The committee

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is advised that the situation could be corrected without a special appropriation if authority existed to erect a new hangar. It would seem that no objection would be interposed to proceeding in such manner to provide this much needed improvement, but the committee is unwilling to take the initiative.

BUREAU OF ENGINEERING

For operation, maintenance, and repair of the main propelling and auxiliary machinery, electrical and radio installations of vessels, the coast signal service, and the operation and maintenance of shore activities of the Bureau of Engineering, the appropriation proposed in the Budget is $19,183,040, contrasted with $21,101,400 for the current fiscal year, the latter figure including $1,000,000 diverted from the naval supply account fund. The estimate is $2,093,360 less than the sum available for comparable objects for the present fiscal year. Of this reduction $933,500 results from the changed operating force plan, as indicated on page 414 of the hearings, and $720,500 is on account of objects which the Budget Bureau felt should be financed out of savings that will accrue during the present fiscal year from the changed operating force plan. The remainder may force some curtailment, possibly in the way of alterations to ships in the nature of repairs and other directions, although the committee feels that lower material costs than prevailed when the estimates were made up will make it possible for this bureau to function on a scale closely comparable with the present year. The committee is recommending the Budget figure with an addition of $60,000 for reconditioning the vessel assigned to California's marine school, previously referred to herein.

With respect to the use of 1931 savings, the committee is in full accord with that policy as to the specific projects brought to its attention. It announced a year ago that it would not expect any savings accruing from economies growing out of the London treaty to be expended. It took that position because it was opposed to the department expending sums on projects that had bad no consideration by the legislative branch. In numbers the items for the most part are in the nature of repairs to ships. Two relate to work on the Wyoming and Utah, pursuant to the London treaty, which the department feels should be authorized specifically and is reserving the money in anticipation of such authorization.

For proceeding with the submarine safety program, initiated in the fiscal year 1930, $750,000 is included under the Bureau of Engineering and $945,000 under the Bureau of Construction and Repair for continuing such work during the fiscal year 1932. The amounts in this bill plus the amounts formerly provided under the two bureaus named will bring the total outlay on account of such program up to $5,148,570. It is expected that the work will be completed during the fiscal year 1932. Everything possible, it would seem, is being done looking to the safety of men serving on submarines.

The Budget and bill make a further sum of $1,500,000 available to the Bureaus of Engineering and Construction and Repair for continuing the program initiated by the committee in 1930 for bringing the machinery and tool equipment of the shops under the cognizance of such bureaus up to date. The machine tool equipment in the active navy yards has a replacement value of about $36,000,000.

Proper upkeep we are told will require continually an annual appropriation of about $1,500,000.

The estimates provide that not to exceed $100,000 of the appropriation proposed for 1932 may be used for structural replacements and temporary new construction necessary to meet an emergency. The appropriation "Contingent, Bureau of Yards and Docks," is intended to provide for minor improvements of an emergent character and the committee has added $25,000 to such appropriation in order to take care of any unforeseen demands of the Bureau of Engineering.

The amount proposed in the Budget as a limitation on expenditures for pay of classified field employees has been reduced from $1,740,000 to $1,624,340, which is $90,660 less than may be expended for such purpose during the present fiscal year. The amount proposed by the committee agrees with the pay-roll requirements as now seen. If it should prove inadequate, it can be raised when the time arrives for considering the increase necessary on account of the Comptroller's decision previously referred to in connection with adjusting the pay of per diem employees pursuant to the provisions of the Brookhart Act.

BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR

The estimate for this bureau's activities is $17,907,500, as against the current appropriation of $17,941,300, which will be augmented by $1,000,000 transferred from the naval supply account fund. The committee recommends the Budget figure, plus $150,000 for reconditioning the ship assigned to the marine school of California.

The lesser amount that will be available ($1,033,800), exclusive of the amount added by the committee as just indicated, results from the changes in the operating force plan and from nonrecurring requirements.

BUREAU OF ORDNANCE

Ordnance and ordnance stores.-The estimate under this head would indicate an increase of $262,385. The estimate, however, includes provision under this head for the purchase and manufacture of torpedoes and appliances, heretofore separately appropriated for and for which $450,000 was provided for the current fiscal year and for a number of years prior thereto. Actually, therefore, the estimate is $187,615 less than allowed in 1931 for the two objects combined. This is accounted for by a transfer of expenses in connection with air compressors, now borne by this appropriation, to the appropriation "Engineering," and to lesser requirements by reason of the smaller operating force program. The latter also, in conjunction with funds released from certain nonrecurring items, will compensate for certain new projects and somewhat larger expenditures for continuing projects, such as replacement batteries for the 16-inch-gun ships, 4 and 5 inch gun improvements, turret accessories and equipment, target projectiles, and reserve mines.

BUREAU OF SUPPLIES AND ACCOUNTS

Pay of the Navy.-The personnel for which this appropriation provides is detailed on pages 296 and 297 of the hearings. The estimate

therefor calls for $133,000,000, as against $132,784,500 for the current year, or an increase of $215,500. These figures are exclusive of funds required to pay naval personnel employed in connection with patients of the Veterans' Administration, who will be cared for by a transfer of appropriations. The decrease that quite naturally it would be expected to find in this item because of the smaller number of enlisted men for whom the Budget makes provision is more than absorbed by an increase of more than $1,700,000 in the retired lists of both officers and men, pursuant to law, to automatic increases in the pay and allowances of officers and to a larger expense by $267,500 on account of flight orders. The Budget figure is carried in the accompanying bill.

Subsistence of naval personnel.-Because of the reduced number of enlisted men, the estimate calls for $17,500,000, or $1,300,000 less than the current appropriation. The estimate is on the basis of a ration costing 52%1⁄2 cents. At the instance of the committee the estimate has been restudied from the standpoint of more recent commodity prices, with the result that the department has suggested computation on the basis of 48 cents, which permits of a reduction of $997,784. The committee, therefore, recommends an appropriation of $16,502,216, with the understanding, of course, that a deficiency appropriation would be looked upon favorably should price trends force an increase in the ration cost.

Transportation of naval personnel.-The Budget and bill provide $4,538,654 under this subhead, or $361,346 less than the current appropriation, accounted for by the smaller enlisted force in 1932 and a higher rate of reenlistments occasioning smaller expense for travel allowance of enlisted men on discharge.

MIDSHIPMEN APPOINTED FROM ENLISTED MEN

The committee has inserted on pages 26 and 27 of the bill a limitation designed to prevent boys being enlisted in the Navy with no idea of general naval service but solely as a means of getting into Annapolis. The law provides that 100 enlisted men may be appointed annually as midshipmen. (U. S. C., title 34, sec. 1032.) This law was intended to make it possible for boys who have had general naval service to look to a commissioned status, but it is understood the spirit of the law is not being closely observed. The proposed limitation requires the performance of not less than nine months' service aboard a vessel of the Navy as a condition precedent to an appointment as a midshipman.

Maintenance, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts.-The Budget and bill provide $10,100,000 for the expenses under this head, or $105,000 less than the current appropriation. The latter, however, it is estimated, will show a balance of $205,000, so that under the bill the bureau will have available $100,000 more than it appears that it will expend during 1931. The Brookhart Act will occasion an additional expense of about $50,000 to the 1932 appropriation. The free margin will require close supervision to avoid a deficiency.

EVACUATION OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES

The naval ammunition depot being established at Hawthorne, Nev., in consequence of the program inaugurated in the fiscal year

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