New CINCUS

ARMY & NAVY

Captain Arthur Japy Hepburn met the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1918 at Queenstown, Ireland, where he was commanding a U-Boat-chasing outfit of college boys. Rear Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn became a warm friend of the senior Senator from Virginia in 1932 at the Geneva Disarmament Conference, where he was naval adviser to the U. S. Delegation. Last week off San Diego, where he was commanding the U. S. Scouting Force in maneuver's, Vice Admiral Arthur Japy Hepburn got word that those two old acquaintances, one now the President of the U. S. and the other the Secretary of the Navy, had appointed him to be Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Fleet, his country's No. 1 officer afloat.

In Navy ranks the news of their new CINCUS caused one cheer, two shivers. One shiver was for "Jappy" Hepburn's reputation as an iron disciplinarian who has "broken" many a transgressing officer. Another shiver, among Navy hardshells, was for his reputation as a forthright, positive, energetic officer with an amenable spirit toward governmental economy and international amity, a determined regard for 6-inch guns. The cheer was for the new commander's reputation as a thoroughly experienced, altogether first-class Navy man.

When he commanded U. S. naval forces in Turkish waters after the War, trim, erect Admiral Hepburn was as beloved in the Armenian compound at Smyrna as the image of President Wilson. When the Turks burned Smyrna he evacuated thousands of refugees. At three disarmament conferences in London and Geneva, his willingness to compromise was such that salty colleagues honored him and Admiral William Veazie Pratt with an accusation of "selling the navy out to the British." Equally criticized for his stand in the battle of mobile 6-inch v. heavy 8-inch guns, Admiral Hepburn swept his mobile Black Fleet down from the Aleutians during last summer's grand maneuvers, proved his point with a thoroughness which vastly dismayed such 8-inch conservatives as the man he will succeed next June, bearded Admiral Joseph M. Reeves.

Admiral Hepburn was born in Carlisle, Pa. 58 years ago, is the father of two Philadelphia sons, one a lawyer, the other a stockbroker. Since the hard-felt death of his wife two years ago he has kept apart from most social activities. A gourmet who would be a gourmand but for pride in his slim figure, he likes golf, fine wines, caviar.

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