Secret

Secrets

The error in the Navy Department's information which led to an appropriation of $6,500,000 to increase the angle of guns on our battleships has rebounded on the Department's information system. Congress passed the appropriation on information that Great Britain was making similar alterations. All the Government files of information on the navies of the world are now to be gone over and all data from unofficial sources is to be separated, as is also all information that cannot be substantiated, so that in the future, if the Secretary of State makes a statement about a foreign navy, he will not later have to retract it. This seems a step which should have been taken long ago. From its very nature naval information is hard to check--every nation tries to conceal its naval secrets. Naval attaches make such observations as they can, but it is practically impossible to get direct information from a foreign government.