Reserve and of the Marine Corps Reserve and each officer of the Regular Navy and Marine Corps without permanent appointments therein, appointed to officer rank in the United States Navy or United States Marine Corps pursuant to this Act, who at the time of such appointment had to his credit leave accrued but not taken, may, subsequent to appointment, be granted such leave without loss of pay or allowance.

SEC. 8. All laws or parts of laws inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, and the provisions of this Act shall be in effect in lieu thereof and such repeal shall include but shall not be limited to the following Acts and parts of Acts:

(a) That portion of the first sentence after the subheading: "International naval rendezvous and review;" in chapter 212, Twenty-seventh Statutes at Large, page 715, which appears at page 730 and which reads as follows: "; and the number of persons who may at one time be enlisted into the Navy of the United States, including seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, mechanics, firemen, and coal heavers, and including one thousand five hundred apprentices and boys, hereby authorized to be enlisted annually, shall not exceed nine thousand."

(b) That portion of the sentence after the heading "Pay of the Navy" in chapter 186, Twenty-eighth Statutes at Large, page 825, which appears at page 826 and which reads as follows: "and the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to enlist as many additional seamen as in his discretion he may deem necessary, not to exceed one thousand ;".

(c) Section 2 of chapter 120, Twenty-ninth Statutes at Large, page 96, at page 97.

(d) That portion of the sentence after the heading "Pay of the Navy" in chapter 399, Twenty-ninth Statutes at Large, page 361, which appears at page 361 and which reads as follows: "and the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized to enlist at any time after the passage of this Act as many additional men as in his discretion he may deem necessary, not to exceed one thousand."

(e) That proviso at the end of the first sentence after the heading "Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. Pay of the Navy:" in chapter 130, Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page 392, which appears at page 403 and which reads as follows: ": Provided, That hereafter the number of enlisted men of the Navy and Marine Corps provided for shall be construed to mean the daily average number of enlisted men in the naval service during the fiscal year."

(f) The following portions of chapter 417, Thirty-ninth Statutes at Large, page 556:

(1) That portion of the first sentence after the heading "Hospital Corps" in such chapter, which appears at page 572 and which reads as follows: "and shall be in addition thereto."

(2) That portion of the first sentence after the heading "Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. Pay of the Navy:" in such chapter, which appears at page 575 and which reads as follows: ", and the President is hereafter authorized, whenever in his judgment a sufficient national emergency exists, to increase the authorized enlisted strength of the Navy to eighty-seven thousand men," and that portion of such sentence which reads as follows: ", and hereafter the number of enlisted men of the Navy shall be exclusive of those sentenced by court martial to discharge."

(3) That portion of the first sentence after the heading "Commissioned Personnel" in such chapter, which appears at page 576, as amended by the first section of chapter 402, Forty-ninth Statutes at Large, page 487, and which, so amended, reads as follows: "Hereafter the total authorized number of commissioned officers of the active list of the line of the Navy, exclusive of commissioned warrant officers, shall be equal to 44 per centum of the total authorized enlisted strength of the active list, exclusive of the Hospital Corps, prisoners undergoing sentence of discharge, enlisted men detailed for duty with the Naval Milita, and the Flying Corps."

(4) That portion of the first sentence after the subheading "Pay of enlisted men, active list," in such chapter, which appears at page 612 and which reads as follows: "and hereafter the number of enlisted men of the Marine Corps shall be exclusive of those sentenced by court martial to discharge.".

(5) The third sentence after the subheading "Pay of enlisted men, active list:" in such chapter, which appears at page 612 and which reads as follows: "The President is authorized, when, in his judgment, it becomes necessary to place the country in a complete state of preparedness, to further increase the enlisted strength of the Marine Corps to seventeen thousand and four hundred: And provided further, That the distribution in the various grades shall be in the same

proportion as that authorized at the time when the President avails himself of the authority herein granted,”.

(g) The first and second sections of chapter 20, Fortieth Statutes at Large, page 84, as amended.

(h) That portion of the second sentence after the heading "Maintenance" in chapter 9, Forty-first Statutes at Large, page 131, which appears at page 137 and which reads as follows: "and the President is hereby authorized, whenever in his judgment a sufficient national emergency exists, to increase the authorized enlisted strength of the Navy to one hundred and ninety-one thousand men”.

(i) That portion of the fourth sentence after the heading "Marine Corps. Pay, Marine Corps;" in chapter 228, Forty-first Statutes at Large, page 812, which appears at page 830 and which reads as follows: "The authorized enlisted strength of the active list of the Marine Corps is hereby permanently established at twenty-seven thousand four hundred, distribution in the various grades to be made in the same proportion as provided under existing law: Provided, That".

(j) Section 2 and subsection (d) of section 15 of chapter 598, Fifty-second Statutes at Large, page 944, at pages 944 and 952, respectively.

(k) Chapter 74, Fifty-fifth Statutes at Large, page 145, as amended by chapter 1, Fifty-sixth Statutes at Large, page 3.

Passed the House of Representatives December 4, 1945.

Attest:

SOUTH TRIMBLE, Clerk.

The CHAIRMAN. We have had hearings on this bill before, haven't we?

Captain SAUNDERS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Why was it held up, Captain Saunders?

Was there some difference of opinion about some features of the bill?

Captain SAUNDERS. No, sir; there were only a few members of the committee here when the hearings were held, and it was thought desirable to have another hearing on it.

The CHAIRMAN. And also, I think, because of some intimation from the President that he was not prepared to indicate what he would recommend for the physical size of the Navy-that is, the number of vessels, and so forth. He thought that it ought to be held up for that judgment.

Later on, he said to go ahead with the matter of determining the personnel.

Admiral Denfeld, will you come forward?

STATEMENT OF VICE ADM. LOUIS E. DENFELD, CHIEF OF NAVAL PERSONNEL, NAVY DEPARTMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY REAR ADM. HERBERT G. HOPWOOD, BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL

The CHAIRMAN. Why is it important to get this bill out, Admiral? Admiral DENFELD. Mr. Chairman, this measure, this legislation, is important right now because we cannot transfer any reserves to the Regular Navy until this legislation is passed.

We have a great many young men who would like to enter the Regular Navy who are in the Reserve now. We cannot give them any firm decision as to whether they can be kept in or not.

I think, in fairness to them, that we ought to get the legislation passed as quickly as possible, so that we can, at least, let them know whether or not they will remain. If they are not to remain, we should let them know so that they can get themselves prepared for civilian life.

I am sure that the President is in perfect agreement with this, because I spoke to him about it, as you have, Senator Walsh, and he realizes the difficulties I was having.

The CHAIRMAN. I was wondering if there was an agreement on the size of the Navy.

Admiral DENFELD. He realizes, of course, that it is only an authorization which would depend entirely on the appropriations.

In view of that fact, he was perfectly willing, as I understood it. to let the legislation become a law.

Senator GERRY. Well, Mr. Chairman, speaking for myself, I wil not want to vote on this legislation until we have gone into the matter very thoroughly.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; we want to do that before we vote. Senator GERRY. Frankly, I would not be willing to vote today. have got to leave at 11 o'clock, I cannot hear any more now.

I

I would like to have a chance to read the hearings. I would want to know more about it before I voted.

Senator ROBERTSON. May I add to the remarks of the Senator from Rhode Island that I, also, have some questions and some possible suggestions and I want to seek the committee's advice.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir.

Senator ROBERTSON. As to how we should proceed on this legislation, I would like to have more information, particulary in regard to the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps, I understand, is embodied in this legislation? The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Senator.

Senator ROBERTSON. And I hope that there will not be a final decision or vote on this legislation until we have had time to go into it. The CHAIRMAN. I shall protect your rights in that respect.

However, I thought that we could exhaust and survey the subject as much as possible today. That is why I wanted Admiral Denfeld to be here.

Is that all right?

Senator ROBERTSON. Yes, sir; Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. The Navy is very anxious to get action.

There are a large number of young men who are Reserves, who are trying to get into the Navy, I understand.

Admiral DENFELD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. These men do not know where they stand, now.. They are undecided as to whether they should go back into private enterprise or remain in the Navy.

You want some legislation so that you will be able to state to them that, at such and such a time, their applications will be acte i upon?

Admiral DENFELD. We want the very best young men to apply. We now have 20,000-some odd, applications, and we are having the Board go over these applications, with a view of seeing whether these men would be suitable material for the postwar Navy.

Approximately between 60 percent and 70 percent of them are very fine young men and I think it would be only fair to them to have this legislation passed.

Senator SALTONSTALL. Mr. Chairman, can I ask a question?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Senator SALTONSTALL. What is the number of officers you are asking for?

Forty thousand additional officers?

Admiral DENFELD. No, sir; the total number of line officers, in accordance with this law, this legislation, would be 40,000 line officers; 12,000 staff officers.

I believe we have approximately 16,000 Regular officers now. We plan to take in approximately 22,000. We plan to do that within the next 6 months.

Senator SALTONSTALL. Would that not depend on the number of ships you would have?

Admiral DENFELD. That is correct.

Senator GERRY. You have not tried out the atomic bomb, have you? How can we determine what the size of the Navy will be before we know a little more about that?

Admiral DENFELD. Well, Senator Gerry, as you know, they are making very elaborate plans to try out the atomic bomb.

Senator GERRY. Yes; but that is going to take some time.

You have got a very important question there. You cannot increase or change the strength of the Navy before you know what the results of those tests will be.

That will have a bearing on how I am going to vote.

Admiral DENFELD. Well, Senator, this is only an authorization-
Senator GERRY. That is one of the things we have got to do.

It is this committee's responsibility to decide upon the authorization first.

The appropriation can only come after the authorization has been made.

Frankly, I do not want to delegate my responsibility to the appropriations committee, where it would be generally held for a subcommittee, a very small number.

I think that the consideration will have to be made here.

Admiral DENFELD. I agree, Senator Gerry, but it is my responsibility to see that we keep an adequate naval personnel for the Navy.

My interest is in getting these young men before they all get distributed out into the world.

Senator GERRY. That may be, but my responsibility as a Senator is to find out whether you need these people and resources, or not. I want sufficient information before I vote.

That is a very serious problem you have there, on the naval personnel. I want to be fully informed about it.

Senator ROBERTSON. Might I say, Mr. Chairman, that on page 2 of the bill, on line 18, under "(b)", with reference to the permanent authorized strength of the Regular Marine Corps, I find what looks very much like the suggestion or the idea that the Marines should take over the occupation of territories that we are occupying now, enemy territories and the like.

I believe it is a constitutional duty of the Marines to do that.
The CHAIRMAN. Perhaps there is a very good point in that.

I saw in the United States News an article on that general subject.
Senator ROBERTSON. Was that recently?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; an article on increasing the Marine enlistment to 500,000 and giving them occupation work.

We cannot control that, of course. That is up to the General Staff, is it not, Admiral, as to how much of the Army or the Marines or the Navy should be used for occupying enemy territories?

Admiral DENFELD. The Joint Chiefs of Staff would decide that and would submit it to the President.

Senator ROBERTSON. I have not seen the United States News. The CHAIRMAN. It was in the syndicated article, not in the news. Senator ROBERTSON. I thought-my thought in this is that I fully believe that the Marines are the right body, the correct body to occupy any station that it is deemed necessary to have our forces occupy.

I would like, if it is in order, that this committee ask the Marines or the Navy to supply us with a plan or with the numbers that it would take of the Marines to carry this out, for the information of this committee.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you would like to have us ask the Navy Department to make a survey of the practicability of having the occupational work done by the marines and to find out to what size the Marine Corps would have to expanded to do that.

Senator ROBERTSON. Yes, sir, that is exactly what I would like to have done, if possible.

The CHAIRMAN. There is also this: There seems to be an impression that the marines are the proper people to do foreign service; that is. they expect to do service in foreign lands when they enlist.

That is not true of any other branch of the service.

Senator ROBERTSON. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. That is his attitude.

A Marine seems to say, "When I join the Marines, I am going to go around the world."

They do not want to stay home.

That seems to be the basis of this article, that the Marine Corps would accept such a job, with no discontent.

Senator ROBERTSON. That is right.

Discontent is one of the main points. They would not kick about foreign service.

I think history shows that it was the Marines that have always occupied any foreign countries.

The CHARMAN. They are the first to land on foreign soil.

Senator ROBERTSON. They are the first to land on foreign soil.

As I say, they seem to have that understanding, and I think they are more or less trained for that service.

I do not know about the officers of the Marines, whether they have any special training to deal with that kind of a sitaution, but it seems to me that they probably have.

Senator GERRY. Mr. Chairman, I think in conjunction with what Senator Robertson is talking about, I would like to know a little bit more about how this Navy sitaution is going to depend upon the number of ships.

The CHAIRMAN. That is rather a digression from this subject.

Senator Robertson was merely going into the matter of occupying enemy countries, he was explorng the possibility of getting from the Joint Chiefs of Staff an opinion whether it is not practical and wise to turn over the occupation of occupied countries to the Marines, and to build up enlistments among the Marines for that purpose. Senator ROBERTSON. That is true.

(Discussion off the record.)