Show I IAYMASTEK WATKINS 1l1It j The case of 1aymaster Watkins of tlio It t I 1 I f United Stated steamship Ossipee who Ii i Ii I was brought to this country from Japan i ii2It b jt tinder scnlcnco of a nital total martial I lhiJ 0 If in a very sinuului ono to people unac t0 quainted with naval matters This man t ft was an olliccr in tlio navy under a bond l ol 50OOO for the proper disbursement of A tho Government funds entrusted to his Ii s tare and ho deliberately stolo tha funds 1 while on a foreign station and inado his pscapo in a small llshing vessel going toward S to-ward the northern isherief in tho hope 1 of f reaching homo by a sage on an I American fisherman Tlio United Slates bteamer Monocacy follotted and overtook tho flshing vessel in n bay of tho Rural Islands and brought Watkins luck to his ship Ho was tried before a General v Court Martial and found guilty of ideal ing tho money entrusted to his caret I care-t i and tho Court Hontoncoil him to bo imprisoned c a im-prisoned three years in an United States I Icnitcntiary at hard labor to receit half O1jO1 furlough pay of his rank for that time and II b then to bo dismissed from tho service of II tho United Stated It is not known if the Secretary of the Navy who has jurisdiction juris-diction in all such cases has approved 5 the finding and Rnntenca yet but it Id likely ho will Just tthy thIs thief who I was an odlcer trusted moro thui others should bo allotted any pay for this those ho Is In prison is not very clear to t out I siderri Any enlisted nun in lisa navy who was proven guilty of any of the grill nary rimes against nival discipline would not only not bu allotted pay for his Horvlludo us a convict but ttould as is the rulobo Miiilcnced to lose what 0i pay was duo him or that might become due him and ha would louse tliu h prison liennilcss on uxpiatin his crime This I man willIf tho sontcniu is tarried out have something like W00J due him from the Goeinment when his term of imprisonment im-prisonment expires for no other reihon than Unit he wad an ollicer and trusted Ii with inoneyu Such II leason ought to I I cause an imerno action and forted him to pay In money to the jovermnent I rather than tu letoivu any and the effect of juyluga iumitun on his dishonubty I will 10 exceedingly bad on the men of Iho unvv who urn lialilotuiiinirisoiiiueiit A for technical ollunses a igaitiHt ihsciplinu It id tho same old < 1 story of favoritism to I a i jfficerd by their fcllotts that has for tit ti-t i hundred years disgraced naval annuls D2i und tried to wake of the ollictr after he II I I lias been proven guilty n 1 different class of criminal from the man There is some consolation for the Jack Tars however in tho fact that naval officers do not control con-trol the rules or regimen of our State Penitentiaries and Paymaster Watklns will have to make brick and wheel coal just as any other criminal does and just as he ought to do In reviewing the work of thu Court Martial it is possible that ppcielary Whitney will decide that IMjnwlcw who lire proven thieve ire no better than other men proven thieVeS astiR cut off this consolatory provision which iaofrenlxe I to the dignity of tIle United Stales |