NAVAL AUXILIARY VESSELS. When the United States became an active participant in the European War it became at once necessary to provide for meeting the demands for vessels for various naval auxiliary uses: Congress, in anticipation of the situation which did arise when the United States became a belligerent, included in the Naval Appropriation Act, approved 4 March, 1917, under the naval emergency fund provisions which were construed as giving the department the right to commandeer vessels needed for naval use in war. To safeguard the interests of the government and avoid as far as possible the payment of unreasonable prices for the vessels so acquired the department ar ranged for and organized a Board of Appraisal for Merchant and Private Vessels, three mem bers of whom were at the time of their ap pointment civilians especially qualified by edu cation, previous occupation and experience, and possessing a reputation for knowledge of values of vessel property and for disinterestedness which the department felt would be recognized by owners of vessels sincerely desirous of co operating with the department without taking advantage of the exigencies of the situation. These men were commissioned as lieutenant commanders in the Naval Reserve Force. The three other members designated by the depart ment for this board were from the list of regular officers of the navy, one a senior line officer, one an officer of the Constructive Corps of the navy and one a line officer with special engineering experience and knowledge. The board was directed by the department to ap praise and fix the fair value of each piece of vessel property which the department con sidered acquinng, either by purchase or by charter, and the values so fixed were used by the department in its negotiations with the own ers of the property. In no case was any vessel property acquired by the navy if the demands of the owner were materially at variance with the findings of this board as to the fair value of the property. The department found a gen eral wish to co-operate on the part of owners and acquired a number of vessels in this way. This spirit of co-operation was especially noticeable among the owners of yachts and other pleasure vessels, a large number of which were required almost immediately after the entry of the United States as a belligerent. It has since been charged that some young owners of such craft were in this way enabled to escape induction into the aimy.
It became apparent, however, that the powers granted under the naval emergency fund pro vision of the Naval Appropriation Act were not sufficient to fully meet the situation, and Congress included in an act making provision to supply urgent deficiencies in appropriations for the military and naval establishments, etc., approved 15 June 1917, provisions granting broader powers under which possession of property needed by the navy for prosecution of the war might be taken possession of by the department subject to the payment of just compensation to the owners, which compensa tion the act in question provided should be fixed by the President.
Information as to the property taken, its age, the character of the maintenance thereof, the betterments made thereto, the date on which the property was taken by the Navy Depart ment and the condition of the property at the time it was taken, was supplied to the board, in most cases fully, by the Navy Department.
At the hearings granted interested parties, they were permitted to present evidence or informa tion regarding the property which had been taken, supplementing or modifying the infor mation supplied by the Navy Department In special cases the board made investigation of these matters directly or through agents where this course seemed necessary to the proper per formance of the duties of the board. In preparation for the deliberations by which the board arrived at the prices or just compensa tion, the board procured all possible informa tion from every available source regarding: (a) The opinions of experts regarded by the board as disinterested as to the value of the property under consideration; (b) the testi mony of experts produced by the interested parties, as to the value of the property under consideration; (c) the prices at which similar property of like character to that under con sideration had been sold at or about the time the property under consideration was taken by the Navy Department and the conditions sur rounding these transactions; (d) the avail ability of the property for commercial use; (e) the demand for property of like character for commercial purposes; (f) the original cost of the property; (g) the value of the property under normal conditions; (h) the cost of the property to the owner up to the time the prop erty was taken: (i) the time when the property was acquired by the owner, the use to which the property had been put by the owner and the gross and net earnings of the property in the hands of the owner for a period of from three to five years before possession was taken by the navy; (j) the cost to reproduce the property taken and the time required for such reproduction.
In time of war or during the existence of a national emergency, members of the Naval Reserve Force of sea-going profession who have been employed in American vessels of mer chant marine of suitable type for use as naval auxiliaries are required to serve only in vessels of the merchant ship type, except in cases of entergency, to be determined by the senior officer present, when said officer may in his discretion detail them for temporary duty else where as exigencies of service may require. Officers in the Naval Auxiliary Reserve exercise military command only on •board ships to which they are attached and in the naval auxiliary service. The annual retainer pay of members in this class after confirmation in rank or rat ing is for officers one month's base pay of the corresponding rank in the navy, and for men, two months' base pay of the corresponding rating in the navy. All naval auxiliary vessels are grouped in districts and each group is placed under a commandant of the district, who is a naval officer of rank and experience. In this way the department is able through the various commandants of districts to carry out problems involving patrol and defenses of the coast, mine sweeping, communications, information, indus trial developments, housing facilities, com mandeering vessels, etc., in a very efficient manner.