OCR Text |
Show oo BATTLE SIGNAL BOOK IS LOST Washington, Feb 3. Naval officers frankly admit they are alarmed at the mysterious disappearance of the battle bat-tle signal book from the destroyer Hull of tho Pacific fleet. Admiral Winslow today reported that all efforts to. find the highly confidential con-fidential code book has been unavailing unavail-ing nnd naval officers said that it probably would be at once replaced by another to make useless the one which has disappeared and which, they admit, they fear may fall Into the hands of some foreign government. govern-ment. Commanding Officer Arrested. The battle signal book contains the secret code used in war and in battle bat-tle practice in times of peace. The copy on the Hull was In possession of Lieutenant H. A. Jones, commander of the Pacific reserve torpedo flotilla and Ensign Robert D. Kirkpatrick. Both officers have been court ninr-tlaled ninr-tlaled at Mare Island navy yard. Navy officers express some satisfaction satisfac-tion that the battle signal book and not the secret code, which is used when ships in foreign waters are communicating com-municating with home, Is the one that disappeared. The latter code is recognized rec-ognized among nations as the best of its kind in tho world and would be difficult to replace. |