The evening times., 1899-06-22
THURSDAY. JUNE %, 1899.
4 Censored Situation.

II might be interesting and instructive
to review the military situation in the
Philippines this evening if anyone outside
of the War Department were permitted 10
know what it is. Unfortunately. since
General Otis lifted the gates triile the
other day and let out a little press infor-
nation of a serious and sensational char-
acter. the censorship al Manila has been
as rigorous as General Corbin 5 editorial
pencil has been facile and Kaleidoscope.
All we can gather from our despatcnes is
that General Wheaton has had TO fall back
from Perez Dasmarinas to linus, and that
the rebel forces are swarming on both OF
his Ganks. This is an unpleasant condi-
tion of affairs. only twelve miles from Ma
niai
In the ordinary course of events one
would expect to hear few words concern
ing the situation of General Macarthur
and his command. AT latest accounts.
week ago, the northern column was at San
Fernando. thirty-fve miles NNW of
our base and fighting the rebels
who had gotten in between Macarthur and
otis. Left in this precarious plight as far
as the public knows. it is rather dis
turbing for the relatives and friends
of officers and men in the command TO be
kept in entire ignorance of their fate. No
body seems TO know what Otis Intended
10 accomplish by detaching as large force
as seven thousand troops from his weak
ened lines around Manila and pushing it
Up the country forty miles to Candaba.
Al nf = -,,rs,
Aguinaldo it led 10 nothing but disappoint-
ment. and savage attack upon Mactr
thur after he had been obliged 10 abandon
Candaba and its inhabitants to the inhu
man fury of the mutineers. who INDUCED
in a general massacre of 'friendlies as
soon as they reoccuDied the town. Having
completed that work i'll short order. they
moved down in front of our force and at
tackled it furiously from the Manila side.
The rebels were whipped in the fight, of
course. and driven back to wherever they
chose to make their next halt out of range
And there the story ended. What has hap
pened since? Is Macarthur cut off. and
under the necessity of fighting his way
through to reioin Otis? This is a question
the country would like to have answered,
Whatever may. be the immediate seri-
business or otherwise of the military situa-
tion in Luzon, evidence accumulates TO
show that there is pressing need for re-
endorsements and plenty of them. d..
Charles a. McQuestin, lately on the staff
Of General Otis. is bone from the Philip
pines. He adds his testimony to that of
other returned officers and says that the
force of soldiers necessary to subdue and
hold the islands has been greatly underss-
fimated; that it will require from one
hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty
thousand men to accomplish the task. 1t
is understood that DR.. McQuestin's views
are largely derived from the military opin-
ions of General Otis, in which case there
is further suggestion that the latter has
been misrepresented by persons connected
with the Administration. A field generals
staff physician is not likely to acquire an
idea that a certain professional object Will
require a hundred thousand soldiers to ac-
complish it, when his chief is so confident
that thirty thousand will do the job, that
he keeps the cable hot begging the War
Department not to think of sending him
one man more than that number. Again
we must congratulate the Adjutant General
upon the discharge of his late war bulletin
editor. Doubtless it was that individual
who made Otis appear to declare that he
had more than an ample supply of troops.
If a Luzon scapegoat be an absolute po-
litical necessity, let the Administration
seize on the bulletin editor. and give the
ments by Otis, which are believed about as
implicitly as if they had been given out
from a private and unauthorized source,
and signed "Ananias Mulhattan Munchau-
sem