Naval Reserve

Since the U. S. has a relatively small and slow merchant marine, Navy officials have brooded long over the problem presented by Great Britain's large and fast merchant marine, equipped with many liners such as the Mauretania, which could be transformed into light fighting units by the mere mounting of guns. Citizens of the U. S. have been made aware of this problem through statements released by U. S. experts at the now defunct Naval Limitations Parley (see p. 10), and therefore the Navy Department was able to arouse unusual interest last week by announcing new plans for a merchant marine officers reserve corps.

This project has been going forward for some time, but last week Navy Department officials announced that it would first be tried out on . U. S. merchant ships now plying between Manhattan and San Francisco. The idea, in essence, is to create on each merchant ship a body of officers trained as a unit in naval technique and capable of being instantly transferred to command a fighting ship.

Congress has already passed legislation approving in principle the payment of each reserve officer at a yearly rate equivalent to one-twelfth of what would be his yearly salary in the naval rank which he has been certified as fit to hold in time of war. Thus a merchant officer who would be made a Lieutenant Commander in war-time will receive $250 per year during his whole reservist period, and, in addition, regulation pay during periods devoted exclusively to "training duty."

Although Congress must specifically appropriate the sums necessary for this purpose, observers thought that final endorsement of legislation already passed in principle would not fail to be forth coming.