SEPTEMBER 19, 1919. MY DEAR SENATOR: I am in receipt of your letter of September 18, 1919, requesting an expression of my views on Senate No. 3016, "A bill to authorize the disposition of certain grazing lands in the State of Utah, and for other purposes.

This bill appears to be a substitute 'or Senate No. 2769, concerning which I submitted a favorable report on the 21st of last month. The present bill amends Senate No. 2769. to the extent of adding after the word "sales," in the resent draft of the bill, line 7, page 2, the following:

"To examine and determine the present value of said lands and upon payment by the patentee or purchase or his assignees of the difference between the amount heretofore paid and such ascertained value, to validate, ratify, and confirm such sales". I see no objection to the amendment, and recommend that Senate No. 3016 receive the favorable consideration of your committee.

Cordially, yours,

Hon. REED SMOOT,

Chairman Committee on Public Lands,

F. K. LANE, Secretary.

United States Senate.

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1st Session.

No. 372.

DETACHED SERVICE OF OFFICERS OF THE REGULAR

ARMY.

OCTOBER 10, 1919.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. CRAGO, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 7752.1

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 7752) relating to detached service of officers of the Regular Army, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass.

The purpose of this bill is obvious. Under the provisions of different acts of Congress officers of the Army who have been on detached service during the emergency would, immediately after the termination of the emergency, be compelled to return to duty with troops or organizations thereof. This would work a great hardship, and would in a great measure demoralize and disorganize the Army, and would not enable the men who are familiar with the work they have had in charge to close up this work in a satisfactory manner.

The letters dated July 21, 1919, and October 4, 1919, from the Secretary of War to the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives show the urgency and the need for the immediate enactment of this legislation. These letters are attached to and made a part of this report.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,

Washington, July 21, 1919.

House of Representatives.

SIR: Herewith is a proposed bill as follows:

"A BILL Relating to detached service of officers of the Regular Army.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, after the termination of the emergency incident to the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, in the construction of any law relating to detached service of the officers of the Regular Army all service performed by such officers during the said emergency shall be regarded as service with troops or organizations thereof."

Your attention is invited to the fact that certain acts of Congress, from date of August 24, 1912, on, impose the requirement that officers of the Regular Army must have performed duty with troops or organizations thereof for at least two of the last preceding six years of their service. In order to enforce these provisions it was provided that "all pay and allowances shall be forfeited by any superior for any period during which, by his order or his permission, or by reason of his failure or neglect to issue or cause to be issued the proper order or instructions at the proper time, any officer shall be detached or permitted to remain detached in violation of any of the terms of this act.

The enforcement of the detached laws has been suspended during the emergency by section 11 of the selective service act (act approved May 18, 1917) which reads as follows:

"That all existing restrictions upon the detail, detachment, and employment of officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army are hereby suspended for the period of the present emergency.

In the construction of this provision of the selective service act two views are possible: One is that only the penalty for failure to enforce the detached service laws was suspended during the emergency and that the period of the war and the dutyperformed by Regular officers therein must be considered in determining the eligibility of such officers for detached service after the termination of the emergency. The other view is, that not only the penalty for failure to enforce the detached service laws, but also the running of such statutes has been suspended for the period of the emergency and that, at the termination thereof, each officer of the Regular Army will revert to the status which he occupied with reference to availability for detached duty at the beginning of the emergency.

If the first of these views should prevail, it is obvious that the War Department will practically cease to function. During the time prior to the war in which the detached-service laws were in effect, many questions were raised and many rulings made as to what constituted absence from duty with troops or organizations thereof; that is, detached service within the meaning of the statutes. Even at that time, when records and returns were easily obtainable, much difficulty was experienced in keeping the detached-service records of officers up to date and reliable. The kinds of service that took officers from their organizations before the war were few, compared with those that took them away during the war, and the difficulties in deciding whether service performed prior to the war amounted to detached service would naturally be multiplied a thousandfold during the war by reason of the conditions of service which then obtained. It will be impossible to anticipate what may be shown by the records kept in France, England, and Siberia with reference to the kind of service that officers have performed, but it is safe to say that it will be a long time after the emergency has terminated before the war-time records can be made available for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the services rendered by officers during the war. Nothing satisfactory nor dependable would result from calling on each officer of the Regular Army to furnish a report of his services during the war for the reason that in most cases officers would not be able to furnish the necessary reports without consulting records which would not be available to them. The result would be that it would be scarcely possible for any commanding officer of any grade or in any position to detail an officer on detached duty without incurring the risk of stoppage of pay for violation of the detached-service law.

But even should it be held that the running of the detached-service laws was suspended during the period of the emergency and at the end thereof every officer of the Regular Army must revert to the status he held at the beginning of the emergency, it is still believed that the operation of these laws would be disastrous to the policies of the War Department, particularly with reference to its school and instruction programs. If the Army is to be able to realize for the future, the maximum of benefits from its experience in this war, if the lessons thereof are to be crystallized in the teachings of the service and be available in the best form for the instruction of student officers in the future, it is evident that the War Department must be given a free hand in the forthcoming selection of instructors for its service schools, and also in its selection of students for the first courses thereat. It is too plain for argument that the future character of these schools will be almost wholly determined by that which is given to them on their resumption after the termination of the emergency. Certain officers, by reason of their technical qualifications and by reason of their experience during the war, are exceptionally fitted for duty as instructors. Many of these may not be available if the detached-service laws are to be revived with service limitations coming over from the period prior to the beginning of the war. Such officers as would be available under these limitations, might be found to be wholly unsuited for the important work immediately in hand, and it may also be that their experience during the war has not been such as to make them of value as instructors or in formulating the courses of instruction to be given at the service schools.

Many officers who are now on detached service, but who under any construction of the law might be unavailable for continuation of such service after the termination of the emergency, should, in justice to the War Department, be retained on that duty for such period as is necessary to clean up the work incident to demobilization and a return to peace conditions if complete disorganization of the service is to be prevented. Then, too, the expense to the Government in a renewed application of the detachedservice laws at this time must be taken into consideration. Officers have not been allowed to choose their duty during the emergency, nor has the department been able to consider, in appointing officers to duty during the war, any measure of readjustment that might become necessary by reason of the detached service laws after the emergency has passed. As a result a great many officers would have to be relieved from their present duties and sent to duty with troops or organizations thereof expense involved in this shifting of officers would undoubtedly be very large. If the proposed bill is enacted, its effect will be to start the running of the detachedservice laws anew from the termination of the emergency and to place all officers of the Regular Army in the same status with reference to availability for detached service. For the reasons above indicated the passage of the bill herein recommended is urgently necessary, and it is hoped that it may receive the early and favorable consideration of your committee to the end that it may be enacted into law prior to the termination of the present emergency.

Respectfully,

The

NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War.

The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, October 4, 1919.

House of Representatives.

SIR: On July 21, 1919, I adaressed a letter to you, a copy of which is inclosed herewith.

The bill therein proposed was on July 23, 1919, introduced by you and is numbered H. R. 7752. It does not appear, however, that this bill has received consideration at the hands of your committee. It is considered of vital importance to the War Department and I venture again to urge upon your consideration the tremendous inconvenience to which the War Department will be subjected and the great expense to the Government which will be involved if this proposed legislation or something equivalent thereto is not enacted into law prior to the formal declaration of peace.

May I again express the hope that this bill will receive the early and favorable consideration of your committee?

Respectfully,

NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War.

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