Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-02-25
BNBALNED BBEF PROBE.
General Miles Testiies Before the
Court Of Inquiry.
he MoDIr1Bs ONE STATEMENT.

Instead of Saying ..Pretense or Ex-
perlment,, He Should Have Said ION
the Theory of an ExperIment''-No
Intention to Impute Fraud toAny One
Washington, Feb. 21.-The Miles court
Of inquiry yesterday made good start
in its work. General Nelson A. Miles
appeared as the first witness. He and
three other army officers summoned as
witnesses were examined and disposed OF
before the court closed its session. These
officers were Lieutenant Colonel Van
Horne, Of the Thirteenth infantry, Lieu
tenant Colonel Charles w. Minor, of the
Sixth infantry, and Major Henry Jack
son, of the Third cavalry. General
Miles testimony, Of course, was the
feature of the days proceedings.
General Miles appeared in fatigue uni
form, rather striking in contrast with
the display of scarfs, bullion and but
tons on the full dress uniforms of the
court. lie submitted to the questioning
Of Colonel Davis, recorder of the court,
with eQuanimity, except for q flash OF
mingled indignation and irony when he
informed the recorder that he was not
compelled to report" to the commits
sary general of the army. This was in
reply to n question rs to whether or not
he had reported to the commissary de-
| partmcnt the fact that complaints had
been made to him MS to the quality OF
meat being issued to the troops.
AS indicated by n letter of the adJu-
tnnt general. read by the recorder for
| the information of the court, the scope
of the inquiry was limited to the allc-
cations of General Miles before the war
commission rs to the quality of the army
beef. "nnd the matter purporting to
have been furnished to the public press
by the same official" Only two inter-
views were called up by the court, the
| first an interview with New York Jour
nal representative early in the beef con-
troversy, in which General Miles was
quoted ms charging that certain chemi-
Gals were used in the preservation OF the
army meat and another Of the New
York Herald. under date OF Feb. i, COW
ering about the same ground.
General Miles was very slow and care
| full in his replies to the recorders qucs-
tons on this point He called attention
! TO the fact that in both instances he was
credited in the interviews with refusing
| to answer certain questions and insisted
| that these rcfusals should be given due
weight in considering the questions to
which he did reply. He said in the case
OF the interview OF Feb. ! that he had
| letter from the man who wrote the story
| offering to swear that General Miles had
refused 10 be interviewed, and that the
whole story was made mp in the office
from the writer's general knowledge Of
the facts. Notwithstanding this, when
| his final answer was asked MS to the au-
| thenticity of the interview General Miles
did not specifically deny it, but merely
said it did not quite fairly represent his
own opinion Of the case The same quail
| fled denial MS to The Journalinterview OF
Dec. % was made, leaving the witness
| on record as not assuming any RESPONSE
| bility for the newspaper statements. but
tacitly admitting that there was good
deal of them with which he agreed.
In answer to question Of Colonel
Davis, General Miles said he thought
his use of the words ''pretcnse of expert
mcnt" was unfortunate. and he dlsclalm-
| cd any intention to impute fraud TO any
one. "As far ms indicating fraud, he
said, ~ wish to state that no such in
ference was intended. 1t was perhaps
an unfortunate expression, and had my
attention been called to it might have
amended it to say 'on the theory of an
experiment. As matter Of fact, it was
an experiment, and very costly one.'
General Miles did not recollect whether
DR.. Dnlys report was volunteered or
| whether he had been ordered to investi-
gate and report on the meat. 1t was
general talk among the officers at Ponce
| that the refrigerator beef must have been
subjected to some chemical treatment to
make it keep for - hours. DR.. Days,
however, was the first official report.
| General Miles read long summary Of
| 100 letters received by him at army head
quarters, giving the various terms in
which the army meat was characterized.
| These included ''embalmcd." 'decom-
posed" injected" poisoned" spoiled"
and the like.