A.W.O.L.

ARMY & NAVY

When business is good in the business world the U. S. Navy has to advertise with gaudy posters and man its recruiting stations with nattily dressed sailors to tempt the satisfied civilian. Many recruits, once in, get out by the simple expedient of going and staying A. W. 0. L. (absent without leave). For long-continued absence-without-leave the Navy has a harsher name: Desertion. The penalty in peacetime may be 30 days bread and water; in wartime it is death. In 1927, 1,092 men deserted the Navy. Since then the number has steadily declined: in 1928 there were 794 desertions; in 1929, 528; in 1930, 398. In the fiscal year 1931 the list of deserters, announced last week, fell to the unprecedented low of 45 out of 82,600 enlisted men--one for every 1,835. The Navy thanked Depression.

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