Captain, R. R. Richey
First Lieutenant, D. B. CARLIN
Second Lieutenant, F. R. DECOUX
The 55th Company was organized last spring as a part of a local battalion which was intended to supplement the local police force, this company being the only one willing to comply with the regulations of the Adjutant General.
The company is composed of business, professional and other men who are able and willing to render any military service that may be asked of them and have proved this willingness by two weeks' night guard in the cannery district, and four weeks' night guard in connection with the National Guard troops detailed here to cover the local
shipyards, but whose numbers were too few to properly guard their assignment.- We have purchased our own uniforms and the city of Long Beach has purchased some old Springfield rifles, which we are allowed to use locally in connection with the other companies which have not complied with the Adjutant General's regulations and which cannot be called away from town, but neither the light khaki uniforms nor the obsolete rifles would be sufficient for any serious duty and we are ready and anxious to co-operate with others in bringing about real State recognition and proper equipment. Could not a meeting be arranged, say at Fresno or some other central point to discuss matters of interest to the Home Guard and to formulate a plan by which proper equipment may be secured?
New York has armed and equipped 15,000 of its former Home Guard under the name of the New York Guard; New Jersey is doing likewise, and the Governor of Missouri, when here last summer, told this company that they were about to arm 10,000 men. The news that Minnesota has ordered out her entire State Home Guard to maintain order in St. Paul and Minneapolis should bring home to the people of California the fact that they too may have some such need and that at the present time the Guard has nothing `to work with.