Navy Report

Prim and precise as a New England diary was the annual report of Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams. He began: "The present secretary was appointed and qualified at 2:35 p.m. on March 5, 1929." Then followed a careful catalog of all the places he had been on official duty, with ship names and dates.

With many a meticulous detail he listed Navy needs: 1) more ships, especially cruisers; 2) more Navy pay; 3) more enlisted men; 4) adjustment of officers' promotion, distribution, retirement provisions.

He reported: "The morale of the Navy is high, the health of the personnel excellent, the condition of re-enlistments entirely satisfactory, and the number of desertions comparatively small."

P:Last year the Navy's 308 ships were manned by 84,000 enlisted men, 8,905 officers. Of these 10,771 flew and tended 281 Navy aircraft. Said Secretary Adams: "The quality and efficiency of the enlisted personnel have never been better . . ."

P: Marine Corps average for the year was 17,983 enlisted men, 1,020 officers. Two thirds of this force was on expeditionary duty in Nicaragua, China, Haiti. Of Nicaraguan intervention Secretary Adams explained obliquely: "To carry out the agreement of the U. S. with the Conservative and Liberal forces of Nicaragua to guarantee a free and fair election it was necessary to increase the U. S. forces operating against bandits."

P:An explosion on the U. S. S. Whitney killed seven men. Ten Marines were slain in Nicaragua. In plane accidents 26 Navy, 13 Marine flyers died. Other Navy fatalities: drowned, 72; suicides, 35; murdered, 5; drugged, 12. Bad food made 129 sick, killed none.

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