site right on the Thames River, and Mr. Clarke, of New London, who is connected with that phase of it, is here. Would the committee care to hear Mr. Clarke, who is not connected with the Coast Guard but is entirely familiar with this site?

Mr. Hocн. We will be very glad to hear him at this time. Will you give your name and whom you represent?

STATEMENT OF WALDO E. CLARKE, NEW LONDON, CONN.

Mr. CLARKE. My name is Waldo E. Clarke, ex-mayor of New London, Conn.

Mr. Hocн. Are you speaking for some organization or are you simply appearing as an individual?

Mr. CLARKE. I am appearing as an individual, but I went before the city council and took this matter up with them with reference to the gift of this site, approximately 40 acres in extent, and I have the promise from each member of the council, the city manager, the director of law, the finance chairman, and a group of about 20 citizens of New London, and that offer was made to Admiral Billard that this property would be forthcoming. I suppose to make it legal for a dollar consideration. The area in question is about the same distance from the center of the city as the old Coast Guard Academy. Mr. HоCH. How far is that?

Mr. CLARKE. Well, that is about a mile and three quarters, by the various street turns.

The old section is on a peninsula, as Senator Bingham said, surrounded by an Italian quarter and the railroad yards of the New York, New Haven & Hartford which make it impossible to enlarge.

The new site is north of the Thames River Bridge, railway and highway bridge at the mouth of Thames River. It is just north of the city park, Riverside Park, and will join with that park. It has a water front of approximately 500 feet in length. It is a very irregular piece of property with outcropping, broken ledges, beautiful in layout, with old oak trees, and the idea was that, as was the case with the Connecticut College for Women, there is sufficient. stone right there to build a number of structures just as the Connecticut College for Women did, which is about a quarter of a mile farther north. This really is the highest part of the city of New London and it is ideally situated for educational purposes. Mr. SHALLENBERGER. Can ships come up this river? water?

Is it deep

Mr. CLARKE. Yes, the main channel is very deep. The submarine base is 2 miles above the bridge. The water is about 50 feet deep there. That is the largest submarine base in the United States. Mr. HOCH. What is the population of New London?

Mr. CLARKE. About 30,000. The city is only 6 square miles in area, very small in area. The surrounding territory runs about 60,000 population.

Mr. GARBER. About how far is this site from the city itself?
Mr. CLARKE. It is right within the city limits.

Mr. GARBER. How far from the business section?

Mr. CLARKE. Here is our business section right in here [indicating on map]. Here is the railway station. This is about a mile and a quarter or a mile and three-quarters, depending on the way the streets go. In a bee line the present academy is a little bit closer to

the center of the city, but in the roundabout way that the streets go it is about the same.

Mr. HоCH. Are there any buildings on this site now?

Mr. CLARKE. No, not at all. This property belonged to the Allen estate. Miss Allen left about a million dollars to create a museum, and the museum is going right there [indicating], and this is all Connecticut College property above. They have about 800 students there now. This museum, which will be historical, marine, whaling, and so forth, that will be just across the street from the proposed site.

Mr. WYANT. If it was left by her for specific purposes or use, how can they divert it to any other use?

Mr. CLARKE. The trustees have given me an option-as a matter of fact, the location in her will for the museum was on this side of the street, but inasmuch as she had already encumbered that land 16 years before her death, and yet without changing her will, she has given this area to the Connecticut College; they in turn gave it back, but by the terms of her will she left her sister-in-law the old homestead, and they have arranged with the sister-in-law to give the sister-in-law a life interest, but they will build the museum on a knoll in the extreme eastern part of that land.

Mr. Hocн. The purpose is to transfer a good title to this property to the Government without cost?

Mr. CLARKE. Without cost-say, one dollar.

Mr. GARBER. What is the estimated value of this site?

Mr. CLARKE. It will run-the chances are it will cost about $75,000, because as an estate I have an option on part of the Allen property for $50,000, but if that was bought for commercial purposes it would be maybe twice that. But the theory of the trustees was that they felt they would not have sufficient money to create the museum and also maintain this 40 acres as a public area or park, and therefore they thought that instead of selling that and letting it go into houses or commercial purposes they would much prefer to have the city buy it for park purposes, and when I suggested the Coast Guard Academy they naturally fell in line with it, and they gave an option on that area of about 30 acres in extent for $50,000.

Mr. GARBER. Is the topography of this site suitable and favorable for the location of these buildings?

Mr. CLARKE. Yes, sir. The area alongside of what is known as Mohican Avenue is more or less level, and halfway down is a natural slope, a ledge outcrop and a lower section here [indicating on map], which makes an ideal football or baseball field, with a natural slope to the west of that field for grandstands.

From the bridge here it is just 311⁄2 miles to Long Island Sound, and then across to the open ocean is 21 or 22 miles.

Mr. CROSSER. You are right on the river?

Mr. CLARKE. Yes. Here is the bridge, and the submarine base is about in this location [indicating], 2 miles above the bridge, and there is a 50-foot channel there.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. This is farther up the river then, than where you are going to locate the academy?

Mr. CLARKE. Yes; the submarine base. That water is always open there.

Mr. GARBER. Point out the location of the Connecticut College.

Mr. CLARKE. This area right in here [indicating on map]. They have about a square mile of property.

Mr. GARBER. How large an institution is that?

Mr. CLARKE. They have pretty close to 800 students now. It has grown very rapidly in the last-well, it is about 7 years old. They could double their number of students provided they had additional funds for building, and so forth. That is the only thing that hinders them.

Mr. HOCH. Is it contemplated that this site is to be given by contribution of citizens, or is this partly municipal?

Mr. CLARKE. We believe that the city of New London will give this itself. We have a group of 20 citizens who have signed my promise to Admiral Billard that if the city will not go through with the full amount we will. There will be no cost to the Government. It will be a title in fee simple, no restrictions.

Mr. GARBER. When will the title permit of a transfer to the Government?

Mr. CLARKE. I should think in, say, less than three months.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. And work upon the property could begin as soon as that is done?

Mr. CLARKE. Surely. The only possible, we will say, restriction, I think, that might be eliminated, will be that if the Government should ever give up the area it would revert to the city, because under the city law, naturally when they are buying an area and giving it away, they can buy that for park purposes and then allow its use, with the provision that it should revert if that use was abandoned. But I have talked to a number in the council and the director of law, and he seems to think that that would not be absolutely necessary.

Mr. GARBER. I think that reservation would not be acceptable to the Government.

Mr. CLARKE. Well, I am quite sure the title can be made in fee simple. Eight years ago the city gave, roughly, $100,000 in actual cash to start the college.

Mr. HOCH. Are there any other questions? If not, thank you very much, Mr. Clarke.

Now, Representative Freeman is here. I believe New London is in your district, Mr. Freeman.

STATEMENT OF HON. R. P. FREEMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT

Mr. FREEMAN. New London is my home, the town of my birth, and of course I have personal interest in this matter.

As you know, of course, the Coast Guard Academy has been established in New London some 30 years at Fort Trumbull. In that time it has grown very greatly in importance. The accommodations there are becoming more and more inadequate and insufficient and the contemplated site on the river is one of the best adapted sites in the country for the Coast Guard Academy. The site half a mile. above it was chosen by the Connecticut College for Women's Society for their college 10 years ago. That has increased greatly in number and importance.

The contemplated site for the Coast Guard Academy is only about a mile from the business portion of the town, and yet it is away from it. They could have a school there away from the town and yet within easy distance of the business portion of the town. Admiral Billard, of course, has told you that the present accommodations at Fort Trumbull are insufficient and inadequate. That is about all I have to say. I trust that this matter will receive your favorable consideration.

Mr. Hocн. Are there any questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Freeman.

Captain Hamlet, superintendent of the academy, is here. We would be glad to have a statement from you, Captain.

STATEMENT OF CAPT. H. G. HAMLET, UNITED STATES COAST GUARD, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE COAST GUARD ACADEMY, NEW LONDON, CONN.

Captain HAMLET. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, there is nothing that I can add to what Senator Bingham and Admiral Billard and Representative Freeman have said as regards the physical condition of the academy. I think I perhaps could best answer questions that the committee might want to ask about the academy or the curriculum.

I might tell you that the school was established by the act of July 31, 1876, which was a question by one of the members of the committee that was not answered accurately. And the Coast Guard Academy took up its present quarters at Fort Trumbull in New London in 1910, moving from South Baltimore, where it had been for a number of years.

I might add that we have not always had shore establishments. We tried the experiment of keeping cadets at sea and living on ships, but it has been demonstrated that the better policy is to have a shore establishment for their collegiate education and a practice ship for their practical instruction at sea.

The buildings that we are using now, by stretching the accommodations and using a classroom, we have made to accommodate about 111 cadets, and those accommodations are very much cramped. We now have 107. So that if we were to increase, we would have to further encroach on the classroom space, and that is totally, entirely inadequate.

The studying that is done by cadets has to be done in their own rooms. There is no other place to study, and that is not conducive to good results, because the young man who has to concentrate in rooms in which he lives, and without access to a fine library and without the proper surroundings or the inspiration which he would get from proper surroundings, can not, in my opinion, study properly or to the best advantage.

This new academy which is proposed here is vitally important to the Coast Guard, because the efficiency of the Coast Guard springs, in my opinion, from the caliber and quality of its commissioned officers. Spartan simplicity is doubtless a very good thing, but we find as the years go on that we need a little more inspiring environment to make the proper caliber of men. The plan which the admiral has

explained to you here, I think, will conduce to giving us that caliber of officers which we so vitally need.

Mr. Hocн. The Secretary refers to the fact that these buildings are fire traps. What have you to say about that?

Captain HAMLET. In my opinion, sir, the Secretary has expressed it exactly. They are constructed of wood. The barracks building, in which the cadets live, has a central stairway which is a flue, a perfect flue, of large dimensions, which can not be protected against fire. The material of which they are constructed is of the most inflammable kind. They have stood so long that they are thoroughly dry and tinder like. The electrical wiring in them, while we are constantly inspecting it and going over it, might be defective in some particular place that we are not able to discern. Those things happen frequently in buildings that are built under higher specifications than those were.

There is an air space above the living quarters of the cadets which is accessible only by a ladder, and on a recent occasion when we had a very small-and I am happy to say not disastrous-fire in the living quarters of the cadets, it was a perfect example of what would happen in a large conflagration. The first thing that could be seen was the smoke coming out of the lattice work ventilating arrangement at the ends of the buildings in the space over the cadets living quarters, which showed that it was a perfect flue; that the draft was just as one would find in a chimney. We use every human endeavor within the limits of our personnel in our ability to look ahead to guard against things of that kind. But I think what the Secretary means, and what I am perfectly willing to subscribe to, is that if it does happen, then they are fire traps. There are no fire escapes other than the ordinary rope which you find in antiquated buildings, for the cadets to make their exit in case of fire.

Mr. HOCH. Are there any questions by the members of the committee?

Mr. GARBER. What are the required qualifications of the instructors at this institution?

Captain HAMLET. All of the instructors except the one civilian instructor are commissioned officers of the Coast Guard. There are no particular qualifications, sir. Every officer who graduates from the Coast Guard Academy is, in a broad sense, competent to go back to the academy as an instructor. Of course, there will enter into the selection of an officer for the academy that inevitable question of adaptability, personality, and I am sure those things are considered by the commandant when he picks or selects officers to be instructors at the Coast Guard Academy, but he is limited to the corps of commissioned officers of the Coast Guard, with the exception of this one civilian instructor. That civilian instructor, by the way, is a very eminent mathematician. He has been with us for a number of years. Mr. GARBER. What is the number of your instructors?

Captain HAMLET. We have at present 10 commissioned officers and one civilian instructor actually engaged in the instruction of cadets, except that I, who am one of the 10, do not actually instruct but supervise.

Admiral BILLARD. You appreciate, Mr. Garber, that these officers do not stay permanently at the academy; that they rotate. It is a tempo