While additional compensation is provided for seamen and landsmen who are detailed from their regular duties to the firerooms, such additional compensation is not "authorized by law" in the cases of marines so detailed. In view of the foregoing, I have the honor to recommend that section 1570 of the Revised Statutes be amended to read as follows: "Every seaman, landsman, or marine who performs the duty of a fireman on board any vessel of war shall be entitled to receive, in addition to his compensation as seaman, landsman, or marine, a compensation at the rate of thirty-three cents a day for the time he is employed as fireman." By the act of August 29, 1916, the rating of ordinary seaman was changed to seaman, second class, and at the present time there are no coal heavers. The recommended provision has therefore been drawn accordingly. Sincerely, yours, JOSEPHUS DANIELS, United States Senate. The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS, SENATE. { REPORT 64TH CONGRESS,} UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE. JANUARY 15 (calendar day, JANUARY 16), 1917.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. TILLMAN, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 7721.] The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 7721) to reestablish the United States Naval Reserve created by the act of March 3, 1915, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass. The bill has the approval of the Secretary of the Navy as will appear from the letter appended hereto: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The act of March 3, 1915 (38 Stat., 940), established a United States Naval Reserve to be composed of "citizens of the United States who have been or may be entitled to be honorably discharged from the Navy after not less than one four-year term of enlistment or after a term of enlistment during minority." The act further provided that "enlistments in the Naval Reserve shall be made in the rating in which last honorably discharged from the Navy for a period of four years unless sooner discharged by competent authority." It was also provided that men in the regular Navy might, under certain conditions, be transferred to the Naval Reserve, to be continued therein until discharged by competent authority. Pay at certain rates was also provided. In accordance with the authority and under the provisions of this act more than 500 men were enlisted in or transferred to the Naval Reserve. The naval appropriation act of August 29, 1916 (39 Stat., 556), established the Naval Reserve Force to consist of six classes, but no provision is made in this act for the members of the old Naval Reserve created by the act of March 3, 1915. The accounting officers of the Treasury have construed the provisions of the act of August 29, 1916, as superseding the act of March 3, 1915, and that the old Naval Reserve therefore ceased to exist on August 28, 1916. On August 28, 1916, there were approximately 24 members of the old Naval Reserve at sea doing active duty in the Navy under competent orders. These men automatically ceased, after August 28, 1916, to be entitled to retainer pay or to pay for active duty. The old Naval Reserve being thereby legislated out of existence, the remaining number of the 500 members thereof also, after August 28, 1916, ceased to be entitled to retainer pay. In view of the foregoing it would appear to be in the interests of equity and justice to the members, as well as in the interest of the Government, that the old Naval Reserve be reestablished, as far as practicable, the same as it existed on August 28, 1916, no more enlistments to be made therein or transfers to be made thereto. This would provide a reserve until the Naval Reserve Force was built up, and it would, upon the expiration of enlistments or the deaths, discharges, or resignations of the members transferred thereto, automatically cease to exist. There is inclosed herewith a proposed draft of a bill which, if enacted into law, would reestablish the old Naval Reserve and permit the former members thereof to regain the status therein which they would have had the old Naval Reserve not ceased to exist. No doubt quite a number of the members of the old Naval Reserve have enrolled in the Naval Reserve Force; others would be willing to serve out the unexpired portions of their enlistments in the Naval Reserve; while those who were enlisted in the Naval Reserve could not by enrolling in any of the classes of the Naval Reserve Force be placed in the position which they were entitled to in the Naval Reserve by reason of their previous service in the Navy. The total annual expense of the old Naval Reserve as it existed on August 28, 1916, would be but a few thousand dollars. As the membership of the reestablished Naval Reserve would at no time be equal to that when the reserve ceased to exist, it is believed that the appropriations already estimated for the Naval Reserve Force will be sufficient to take care of the additional expense. While it is of course impossible to determine the actual number of men who would be reinstated, the department estimates that the total annual expense for the old Naval Reserve, if reinstatements are authorized as recommended, would not exceed $10,000, and would probably be about $9,500 per annum. The reestablishment of the Naval Reserve would, therefore, involve no additional appropriations over those already estimated for. In view of the foregoing, it is recommended that this proposed bill receive the favorable consideration of yourself and your committee with a view to its enactment into law. Sincerely, yours, JOSEPHUS DANIELS, The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES SENATE. 64TH CONGRESS, 2d Session. SENATE. { No. 938. REPORT EXAMINATION OF OFFICERS OF THE NAVY. JANUARY 15 (calendar day, JANUARY 16), 1917.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. TILLMAN, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 7723.] The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 7723) to amend section 1496 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relative to the examination of officers of the Navy for promotion, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass. The bill has the approval of the Secretary of the Navy, as will appear from the letter appended here to: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Section 1496 of the Revised Statutes reads as follows: "No line officer below the grade of commodore, and no officer not of the line, shall be promoted to a higher grade on the active list of the Navy until his mental, moral, and professional fitness to perform all his duties at sea have been established to the satisfaction of a board of examining officers appointed by the President." At the present time and for many years past both examining and retiring boards in the Navy have been convened by the President, through the Secretary of the Navy. The law has been construed to authorize no one to make changes or alterations in the membership of a naval examining or retiring board without the express authority of the Secretary of the Navy who is, in contemplation of law, acting for the President. In the cases of examining and retiring boards convened on foreign stations, considerable inconvenience, expense, and delay has resulted from the present requirements of the law. Either the officer who is to be examined must be detached from his station and duty on a foreign station and ordered home to the United States for examination, or the Secretary of the Navy must convene an examining board on the station where the officer is located. On account of the distance from the United States of some of the foreign stations, it is impracticable for the Department at Washington to know just what officers will be available for duty on the examining board when the precept therefor actually reaches the station. In practice, therefore, it has been necessary to make the precepts out in blank, having them signed by the Secretary of the Navy. These precepts are transmitted to the senior officer on a foreign station, who is authorized to fill in the names of such officers as are available for board duty, the precept when thus filled in and countersigned by the senior officer present to become effective as the order of the President through the Secretary of the Navy. It has frequently happened in the past that officers on examining or retiring boards on foreign stations get sick, or die, or are of necessity ordered to other duty. Any change in the precept thus necessitated must be made by the Secretary of the Navy to be legal. Communication with the Secretary of the Navy must be by mail, requiring as much as two months' time in some instances, or by cable at considerable expense to the Government. This results in a corresponding delay in the examination of the officer. In June, 1915, an ensign was ordered to appear before an examining board on the Asiatic Station for promotion. He was examined and the record of proceedings of the board were sent to the department. In view of certain irregularities and the fact that the finding of the board was not in accordance with regulations, it was necessary to return the record to the examining board for a revision of the record of proceedings and of the finding. When the record reached the Asiatic Station, it was found that the president of the board had come to the United States. It was therefore necessary to cable the department for a new precept convening an entirely new examining board for the reexamination of the officer. The record of proceedings of the latter board were finally approved by the President on February 7, 1916, more than seven months after the officer to be promoted was ordered to appear before the examining board. This is but one of the instances of the delay, expense, and inconvenience experienced by reason of the fact that it is always necessary to communicate with the Secretary of the Navy for any slight change in the precept. The difficulties above referred to, the department believes, could and should be overcome by authorizing the senior officer on a foreign station to convene examining and retiring boards. This is what is actually done at the present time, but the routine referred to in the preceding paragraph must be gone through in all cases in order to comply with the law. There is inclosed herewith a proposed draft of a bill which, if enacted into law, should facilitate and expedite the examination of officers on foreign stations and, so far as practicable, eliminate the objectionable features referred to above. It is recommended that the proposed draft be introduced in Congress and enacted into law. |