Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 1 | Marched Slated for Duty in the Staff Office

HOI SLATED FOB DUTY IN Hit S1FJFFICE Major General Now Acting as Chief of Artillery of Expeditionary Ex-peditionary Forces to Be Assistant of Bliss. LATER TO REMAIN ON THE OTHER SIDE New Man Is a West Pointer of Wide Experience and Will Probably Be Raised to Rank of General. WASHINGTON, Feb. 2. Speeding up of general staff activitieos is expected ex-pected to follow the appointment of Major General Peyton C. March as acting chief of staff of the army, au- nouncement of -which depends only on j advices from General Pershing that the officer can be spared from his duties as chief of artillery of the expeditionary expedition-ary forces. Secretary Baker would not discuss his plans today, but it is known that ho has determined npon General March as the most suitable officer to take over the -work of this importaut post. General Bliss, the staff chief, will re; main in France as the permanent representative rep-resentative of the United States on the supreme war council, which determines policies to be carried out on the various va-rious fronts-Will fronts-Will Not Block the Way. Both officers and civilians who have returned from France recently have brought back word of the impression General March had created by the energy en-ergy and skill displayed in organization organiza-tion of his branch of the service under General Pershing. Private messages from France have indicated that the American commander approves the selection se-lection and will not block General March's appointment, but so far as is known, no official reply has come from General Pershing. Coming from manv months of close contact with the lighting fronts in France, General March will be able to put into his task as head of the army all the knowledge he has acquired. He is reputed bv las fellow officers to be a man of quick decisions, a quality regarded re-garded as vital in a successful chief of staff. Upon that official rests the burden bur-den of seeing to it that the various bureaus of the department, as well as the line of the army, work out tlioir problems in harmony. No More Hesitation. Dunn" the time General Bliss and his predecessor, Major General Hugh L Scott were absent on foreign missions, mis-sions, there has been a tendency for important' matters to become clogged in the general staff office. It has been difficult to get final decision on even urgont questions, as the officers acting act-ing were said to be hesitant about going go-ing outside any policy laid down by the actual chief. . The permanent assignment of General Gen-eral Bliss to the war council may- result in a request to congress for authority to appoint an additional general. As General March will bo in fact, head of the army, it is regarde J prabaMj that he will be given bo h he rank aJnd title of chief of staff later, Gem al Bliss being continued in similar rank but relieved as chief ot staff to permit him to devote himself exclusively exclu-sively to his work abroad. West Point Graduate. General March is 53 years old and was horn in Pennsylvania, from which state he went to the military academy. He has been attached to the artillery branch continuously with the exception of dutv as major and later as lieutenant colonel of volunteer infantry in 1&99-l'oni 1&99-l'oni for Philippine service. General March commanded the Astor battery m 'the Sanish-Amcricnii war. He was graduated gradu-ated from tho artillery school with high marks in 1S98 and served on the general gen-eral staff iron, 1903 to 1904. During the Kusso-Japaiiese war he was mill-firv mill-firv observer for the United btates arn.v with the Japanese troops The qualifications of General March for duties have been highly spoken of l,v officers of General Freshing s staff. ccretarv Baker is known to have under consideration for some tune the urgent necessity of putting a young and vigorous vig-orous man at the head of the staff to co-ordinate all the military branches of ,l,e army. Several of the general of- (Continued on Page Two.) MARCH SLATED FOR PLACE DF BLISS (Continued from Page One.) ficers have been discussed for the post, but the decision to name General March was reached only within the last few-days. few-days. Biddle Assistant. Major General .John Biddle, assistant chief of staff and now acting chief, in the absence of General Bliss, will continue con-tinue as assistant as far as is known. Army officers see in the appointment of General March promise of a more thorough uniting of all war department agencies than has been possible heref fore, owing to the peculiar situation which the general staff has found its?' ever since the entrance of the Unit' States into the war. When the : began.Major General Scott, chief i staff, was promptly detached for ita in Bussia with tlie Boot commisHo. General Bliss, as his assistant, took ovf the work, but did not succeed to ti title of chief of staff until Gener. Scott 's retirement. Almost immediately after his elation ela-tion to that post he was in turn d tached to go to Europe and has m since functioned as chief of staff. -is an open secret at tho war departmfi that there has been a lack of careful', organized staff work, due to this situi tion.