Show I DlPHTHtRlA AT CAMP MtRRlTT I SURGEONS ARE TRYING TO HEAD IT OFF V Only Salvation Is to Hurry the Troops Aboard TransportsMay Not Sail For Ten Days San Francisco June 21Despite all announcements General Merritt has not yet decided whether he will go with the next fleet of transports There have been rumors that the general would sail on the Indiana the Newport and a Pacific Mail steamer to Hongkong thence to Manila but no plan has yet been adopted It is intimated however how-ever that he will be taken to the Philippines Phil-ippines on the cruiser Philadelphia should she be ready for sea within a reasonable time One thing is certain the general is preparing to depart and if he should conclude to sail with then the-n xt fleet he will be ready The transports trans-ports cannot however get away before I Saturday The loading of the vessels with quartermasters quar-termasters and commissary stores is going forward as quickly as possible and some of the more enthusiastic of the officers at work on them say that the ships may be ready to sail by I Thursday and not later than Saturday I at the farthest The general opinion I however V among the leading authorities authori-ties is that it will be ten days before we can salute another outgoing fleet Every effort will be made to get them I off sooner if possible Under orders from General Merritt aboard a-board of army doctors today examined I the Pacific Mail steamship Newport which arrived last Saturday from Panama Pan-ama with the view of the vessel being fitted UD as a hospital ship for the Philippine expedition The Newport is one of the finest vesSEls ves-sels on the coast and would well serve the purpose of being turned into a floating float-ing hospital The surgeons are doing everything in their power to stop a spread of the diphtheria Notices have been sent to all regimental surgeons to try to head off the dread disease The sanitary condition of the camp is very bad and in the present circumstance could belittle be-little improved The only salvation as it now appears is to hurry the troops to the transports and away from Camp Merritt The Monadnock arrived in the harbor this afternoon from Mare Island Her consort the Nero is being coaled and will be ready for sea within a few days It has not been definitely given out just what part these vessels will play In the war but it Is generally believed thatthey will accompany the next expedition ex-pedition to the Philippines or leave within a fewdajs after the third fleet sails |