Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-03
ENLISTING PORTO RICANS.
Col. Hall Describes the ORGANIZATION
of the Battalion.

VI the
Col. w. =. Hall, adjutant general of the
| military department of Porto Rico has
| made a report to the War Department in
regard to the organization of the Porto
Rico battalion. He says that the only re
| cruiting attempted in the island was the
| enlistment of the Porto Rico battalion of
| 400 men. The requirements for these re-
| cruits We're the same for the regular
| army, barring the conditions that they
| should be citizens of the United States and
| be familiar with the English language.
recruiting stations were established at
| the posts of San Juan. Ponce. MayagueZ.
! Arecibo, Aguadilla, Cayey, Humacao, Ad-
| juntas. Ctuado, YauCo, Coamo, San Ger
| man. BayamOn, Manati, Lares and Albion
! Ito, making sixteen stations in all, and the
| theory was to enlist twenty-five men al
| each point. making total Of 400. with
| term of enlistment to expire July !, 1901
| 1t was thought that this arrangement would
| obtain the best element from all over the
island and have but few enlisted in any
| one locality In this way an excellent lot
| of men. for Porto Ricans. was obtained
| Col. Hall says the generally syphylized con-
| dltIon of large portion of the Porto RCan
| population and their poor physical devel-
| opment made it extremely difficult to oh
| tain men who came up to the standard.
number of eX-Spanish soldiers applied
! for enlistment. and when this was known
| TO the natives numerous protests came from
them against the enlistment of the Span
| iards. The battalion is now full. with the
| exception of q few select men who re
| quired for special purposes. and are diff
! cult to obtain. number of Americans
| have been enlisted for the battalion and
transferred to ii from the regular army
| for non-commiSsioned officers and clerks
The articles of war relating to enlisted
men have been translated into Spanish
| read to tho battalion and circulated among
the men. The military commands are given
to them in English and the men are in
| StruCted each day in that language
The organization of the Porto Rico bat
TALON Col, Hall says, IS a most important
and essential step toward improving tn,
condition of the inhabitants of Porto Ric,
for the following reasons: The character
| istiCS of the Porto RicanS are that the.
are timid and not self-reliant and il is not
surprising that this should be- as the pol
| icy of the Spanish government has been I.
prevent them from having arms and mill
tary training, and as . result they have -
Superstitious fear of a rife because they
| know nothing of its use.
Their record for more than century Ia
| been that they have offered no substautia
resistance to the expressions Of the Span
| ish crown; there is no kind of training
| equal to a military one for giving men duo
respect for properly constituted and eXer-
cised authority and making them brave am
reliant upon themselves. AS time goes or.
II VIII probably be found more economical
and judicious for our government to hay.
all the military work for this island per
formed by the natives: these soldiers Wi.
gradually pass out of the service and settle
down to various civil occupations. and tn,
benefits of the training they have received
will be disseminated among the younger
generation which will be benefited accord
insly. All who are familiar with our oU2
frontier know that many of its best Cit
ZenS have served for a period in our army