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Show MARCH SLATED ACTING CHEF Major General to Serve If General Gen-eral Pershing Can Spare Him. QUALIFIED OFFICER Baker Favors Vigorous Man to Co-ordinate All Military-Branches Military-Branches of Army. WASHINGTON, Feb. 2. Major General Gen-eral Peyton C. March is slated to become be-come acting chief of staff of the army, , if General Pershing can) spare him from his present duties as chief of artillery of the expeditionary forces. No reply has been received as yet from General Pershing. Tho selection of General March means that Major-General Bliss, chief of staff, is to remain permanently in Europe as the American military representative rep-resentative at the supreme war council coun-cil now sitting in France. It is expected expect-ed that General March will undertake his new duties in the near future. Bliss In War Council. The permanent assignment of General Gen-eral Bliss to the war council may re-isult re-isult in a request to congress for au-1 au-1 thority to appoint an additional gen-i gen-i eral. As General March will bo m fact j head of tho army, it is regarded as r-robahle that he will be given both tho rank and title as chief of staff later, 1 General Bliss being continued in sim- liar rank but relieved as chief of .staff ! to, permit him to devote bimse'f cx- clusively to his work abroad. General ararch is 5d years old and was born In Pennsylvania from which j stato he went to tho military academy, lie has been attached to the artillery branch continuously with the exception excep-tion of duiy as major and later as lieutenant-colonel of volunteer infantry in 1S99-1901 lor Philippine sen-ice. Gen-oral Gen-oral March commanded the Astor nat-tery nat-tery in the Spanish -American war. He graduated from the artillery school j with high marks in 1SQS and served on ;tue general staff from 1903 to 1904. During tho Russo-Japanese war he was military observer for the United States army with the Japanese troops. March Well Qualified. ' The qualifications of General March for duties have been highly spoken of by officers of General Pershing's staff. Secretary Baker is known to have had under consideration for somo time, the urgent .necessity of putting a young and vigorous man at the head of the staff to co-ordlnato all the military branches of the army. Soveral of the general officers havo been discussed for tho post but the decision to name General March was reached only within with-in the last few days. Major-General John Biddlc, assistant chief of staff and now acting chief, in tho absence of General Bliss, will continue as assistant assist-ant as far as is known. Army officers see in tho appointment of General March promise of a more thorough uniting of all war department agencies than has been possible hereto here-to foro owing to tho peculiar situation in which tho general staff ljas found Itself ever since tho entry of the United States Into tho war. When the war began, Major-General Scott, chief of staff, was promptly detached for duty in Russia with tho Root commission. commis-sion. .General Bliss, as his assistant, took over tho work but did not succeed to the title of chief of staff until General Gen-eral Scott's retirement. I Almost Immediately after his elevation eleva-tion to that post he was In turn de-tuched de-tuched to go to Europe and has not since functioned as chief of staff. It is an open soviet at tho war department that then- has been a lack of carefully organized staff work duo to this situation. situa-tion. oo |