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@ Two sets of noncommissioned officers' quarters constructed at Fort Pickens in 1907.

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The most urgent need in the matter of barracks and quarters for the coast artillery up to this time has been for company barracks and for noncommissioned staff officers' quarters. The appropriation of $2,139,060 made last year was, by an understanding with the chairman of the sundry civil committee, intended to build principally barracks and quarters for the enlisted men and a few bachelor buildings for officers where the approved scheme contemplated that they should be constructed, the plan being to provide first for the enlisted men and to have the officers wait until another appropriation. The principal need, therefore, for the next year will be to provide officers' quarters at the posts which have been enlarged by the construction of barracks, but for which the necessary additional officers' quarters have not been provided.

After having gone over each post very carefully, taking into consideration the quarters already constructed, those under construction, and those for which allotments have been made, the Chief of Coast Artillery is of the

Requirements for next year.

opinion that the following should be estimated for during the next year. It is believed that the cost will be in the vicinity of $1,400,000. This estimate is based roughly on such figures as have been obtainable by the Chief of Coast Artillery as to the cost of construction and includes the cost of plumbing, heating, and lighting. The detailed estimate, of course, will have to be prepared by the QuartermasterGeneral.

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ters, insular possessions.

INSULAR POSSESSIONS.

More

The need for barracks and quarters for coast artillery troops at Corregidor and Grande Islands, Philippine Islands, Barracks and quar- and at Honolulu, is urgent; in fact, far more urgent than the need of additional barracks and quarters for coast artillery troops in the United States. rapid progress has been made in the completion of the fortifications authorized heretofore for those places than had been anticipated, and the situation now confronting the War Department of providing for the care and preservation of the armament is serious. With the completion of the other batteries now under construction, this condition will become worse and relief can not be obtained until barracks and quarters are provided. The armament completed or to be completed before the close of the present fiscal year on Corregidor Island will require 10 companies for its service; that on Grande Island, 4 companies; and that at Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, 4 companies. Due to the lack of available funds for the construction of quarters, it has been possible to station but one company of coast artillery on Corregidor Island and but one company on Grande Island.

Failure to obtain funds at this session of Congress will mean that for the next three years these defenses will be in a state of almost complete unpreparedness for war, due to the lack of personnel to man the armament and receive proper training in handling the same. The distance of the Philippine Islands from the United States renders it

57048-WAR 1908-Vol 2—16

improbable that sufficient time will be available when a war appears imminent and before its outbreak to enable coast artillery troops sent from the United States to reach these islands. For this reason it is considered useless to install fortifications in the Philippine Islands unless a sufficient garrison of coast artillery is maintained there at all times to fully man them.

sity.

It is therefore recommended that Congress be asked to provide at its next session for a 10-company post on Corregidor Most urgent neces Island, Philippine Islands, a 4-company post on Grande Island, Philippine Islands, and a 4-company post at Honolulu, Hawaii; and it is further recommended that in the hearings before the congressional committees the urgency of the early commencement of this work be pointed out and Congress be asked to make the appropriation for this purpose available immediately upon the approval of the act of appropriation.

home ports.

INSTRUCTION.

BOATS FOR COAST ARTILLERY SERVICE.

The four mine planters, Hunt, Knox, Armistead, and Ringgold, have been utilized during the past year for instrucMine planters for tion work in mine planting at the School of Submarine Defense at Fort Totten, N. Y., the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Va., and in the various artillery districts along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The act of May 27, 1908, appropriated $175,000 for a planter for the Pacific coast. This latter planter will be assigned for instruction work in submarine mining to San Francisco and San Diego harbors, and the planter provided by the act of March 2, 1907, to the Columbia River and Puget Sound.

The four planters on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the two on the Pacific coast will be sufficient for instruction purposes in time of peace. In time of war these planters will be assigned to particular artillery districts for planting the mines according to the approved projects.

With the knowledge that Congress could never be expected to provide sufficient mine planters to enable the whole mine Auxillary mine defense of the United States to be planted promptly planters for home on the outbreak of war, the joint army and navy board, upon the recommendation of the Chief of Artillery, adopted the following resolution on July 1, 1907:

ports.

Resolved, That when, upon the outbreak or threatening of hostilities, the vessels of the Light-House Establishment have been turned over to the Navy Department as contemplated by existing war plans, the Secretary of the Navy should place at the disposal of the War Department such light-house tenders as the Secretary of War may request, for temporary duty in laying out the harbor-defense mine fields, the said employment to terminate with the initial planting of the mines and not to continue for the purpose of maintenance of the fields.

This was approved by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of War; and the chairman of the Light-House Board and the Chief of Coast Artillery were authorized to arrange the details for utilizing these vessels for mineplanting purposes under the conditions referred to in the resolution.

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