Show SHORT OF OFFICERS Navy Has Not Enough to Care for Our Warships MANY OUT OF COMMISSION Extent of Shortage May be Suggested by tho Pact that for All of Pour Great Guns in Double Turrets of New Battleship Kcarsarge but One Officer Could be Spared Involving Involv-ing Undue Risk Even in Times of Peace There Arc 160 Vacancies in the Line 1 j Washington April 11The Navy department de-partment was under the necessity today to-day of ordering the United States cruiser Detroit to the Portsmouth navy yard New Hampshire to go out of commission In addition to this orr dcrs have been prepared to put the Mnrblchead out of commission at More island and telegraph orders have been sent to Admiral Watson to Bend the gunboats Bennington and Concord Con-cord now at Manila to Los Angeles where they will be also put out of commission S Tim m blg battleships S Indiana and Massachusetts which have just been overhauled at the New York navy yard aro Vlro to lr sent to League island about the first of the month to bo laid up In otdhmry instead of being commissioned S This remarkable reduction of lid number of ships ipt commission Is ascribed 1 as-cribed at the department to the lack of n sufllclent number of officers to furnish complements fOI the ships absolutely required for naval purposes The battleship Kearsurge has Just been put In commission and the Illinois Illi-nois on the Atlantic side and the Wisconsin on the Pacific must be also commissioned Immediately in order or-der that the ships can be taken over from the hands of the contractors There are some smaller craft like the Strlngham and the Chesapeake also calling for commissions and crews The extent of the shortage may be suggested by the fact that for all of the four great guns In the double turrets of the new battleship Kearsarge but one officer could be spared Involving undue risk even In times of peace The navigation bureau is authority for the statement that there are fully 1GO vacancies va-cancies In the HnotoKthe navy and the total number of oflt ers Is really less than it was four years ago notwithstanding notwith-standing the great incrcfase In the number num-ber of ships The projected Shortening of the course at Annapolis nrWldcd for In the pending naval bill would not substantially sub-stantially relieve thp situation In less than fifteen years so the officials arc striving to find some method for temporary tem-porary relief such perhaps as the graduation of the Annapolis classes for the next two years one year In advance ad-vance of the usual time or an authorization au-thorization of the Immediate appointment appoint-ment to Annapolis aboul 100 extra cadets S |