ARMY & NAVY: Key West Closed

When in 1898 Rear-Admiral William Thomas Sampson steamed from Key West for the blockade of Santiago (TIME, Sept. I), Key West was a bustling harbor, a busy naval station, a bristling fort (Ft. Taylor). Key West had been fortified since 1846, had remained Federal during the Civil War. Southernmost U. S. port, situated on a coral island 60 mi. southwest of the Florida mainland (now joined by the oversea Florida East Coast R. R.), during the Spanish War it was concentration centre for the U. S. Atlantic Fleet, embarkation point for many a Cuba-bound soldier. During the World War it served as a Naval flyers’ training station, since has been a repair port and operating base for submarines, destroyers. Last week the Navy Department, pursuing the Administration’s rigid-economy plans, ordered this historic base closed, together with its industrial plants. Only the offices of the 7th Naval District, the Naval Reserve training headquarters, and the (Army) fort will remain open.

Further Navy economy measures last week were: reduction in recruiting for the next year of 3,000 to 4,000 men; restriction of Navy airmen to a minimum of training and familiarization flights, banning of congressional junket air “shows” at local fairs and celebrations.