The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12
CHAFFEE CALLS A cAIb
AMERICAN COMMANDER In CHINE
scoRHs MISLEADING MAGA-
ZINE ARTICLE
DOESN'T TELL THE TRUTI
The General Says Mr.. MlIIard'S Story
Is a Tissue of False hood
From Beginning to
End

NEW YORK. March s11-Gen. A. r.
Chaffee has forwarded to the war de-
partment communication pointing out
as raise and exaggerated statements In
Mr.. Millard's article entitled "A Com
parison of the Armies In China" pub
lished In Scr.hner,s Magazine for Janu-
airy. Gen Chaffees letter in part says:
This article Is an exaggerated state
ment In many instances and extraordi-
nary as a whole. The high color.ng
would be without interest to the depart
ment or to me if several misstatemcnss
regarding matters which affect the in
| terests of the government were not made
a part Of his story
MIR. Willard must surely base his
statements on hearsay. supplemented 10y
his ina gination. regarding the march nt
| the relief column to PEEK H. He was moi
with that columns, although his readers
are led to infer that he was He lis
not arrive in Pekin until two months
after The arrival of the relief Column. He
undoubtedly saw much devastation on
his way up. He did not see the Russian
and Japanese troops Of the column shoot
! ing and bayoneting harmless and help
/ less people, as descr. bed by him. Pai-ic-
ulariy he has no right to say that our
armies are not free from these wdnton
Sacrifices for the American force was
NO TOWNS BURNED BY TROOPS.
'Mr Willard makes an important mis-
statement when he says: Every town,
every village, every peasants hut in the
path OF our troops was first looted and
then burned. A stretch Of country for
ten miles in width was thus swept This
is not true
During the march Of the column from
Yang-Tuan to Pekin part of but one
town-Chang-Ch CHA Wan-was burned La
ter on some buildings particularly
at the Tung-Chaw, half destroyed, were
burned by attachments following the re-
lieving army.
Mr.. Willard says that within A week
after their arrivalsin Pekin over one
third of the American force was in tie
hospital. From the official records can he
obtained the following racts:
On Aug. l, at Tien-Tsin, there were
22l on sick report principally from the
Ninth infantry. On Aug. 4. when the
command left Tien-Tsin for Pekin. the
number of sick had dropped to 1SS, or Sas
per cent. The drop was due to the nat
ural zeal OF the men to take part In the
march to the relief of Pekin. Between
Aug. 20 and 81 there was gradual rise
in the sick report to 41S, or lie per cent.
gain Of per cent since entering Pekin
and 5.5 per cent Since the 1st of the
month. This was the high-water mark.
JAPANESE NOT FIRST WITH WIRES.
mo one objects to the high Arbitration
expressed by Mr.. Willard for the jan
anese army. It's equipments etc. However
when he says ON the march TO Pekin
their field telegraph line prevented the
allied army from losing touch with It's
base. The American signal corps, a
branch our service is wont to boast Of,
dad manage to string a wire and keep 1t
open at least part of the time he is dali
lying with error. The fact is The British
and american telegraph line, jointly con-
structed and operated was the only line
The worst annoyances were caused
by malicious cuts and removal of a por-
ton OF the wires. The Japanese line was