The San Francisco call., 1901-10-30
ARMY NEEDS
SIGNAL MEN
General Greely Reports
on Condition of
Service.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2s.-General Gree
ly, chief signal officer, in his annual re-
port says the signal corps should be in
creased to meet present requirements;
telegraph line in Alaska and arrange
ments have been made with the Canadian
Government to use its lines to Alaska.
The operations of the corps in the Philip
pines have been very extensive, there
having been 1851 miles of telegraph line,
an increase of 2054 during the year. The
military cable lines in the Philippines
connect with Mindoro, Martinique, Samar,
Leyte, Cebu, Negros, Mindanao, Jolo and
Siasi. Concerning The work of the corps
in the Philippines General Greedy says:
If the officers and men of the signal corps
advantages they were under, their work in the
Philippines would have commanded commenda-
tion; but to this must be added the extreme
difficulties arising from the practically con-
slant efforts of the insurgents to destroy in
| dispensable means of nter-communication. In
the region southeast of Laguna de Bay, Santa
Cruz to Antimono and thence to the head Of
the Gulf Of Ragay, the insurgent troops had
only by the cutting Of the wire, but by the
removal destruction of considerable stretches
of line The commanding officer at Santa Cruz
informed me that necessity had caused him to
furnish every repair party with at least a
away at each break. Destruction of sections
of two, three five miles of wire not
total destruction of thirty-eight miles of line.
every insulator being broken. every bracket
destroyed or removed every pole cut down and
the entire wire carried away
General Greeley recommends an inter-
nationa! cable conference to prepare regu-
lations for cables. Concsrn,ag expert
mental work he says:
In wireless teegraphy the signal corps has
perfected its own system, which was the first
one ever successfully operated in the United
States, September 80 1899, between Fire
Island and Fire Island lightship a distance
of ten miles. There in successful
operation two stations in San Francisco har-
hOr ar Fort M nd ut
catraz Island. Arrangements have been made
for the establishment of stations in the Phil
ippines at suitable points. The chief signal
officer adhered to the opinion that this system
has its limitations which are not entirely de-
pendent on distance.
General Greely, in recommending a
Pacific cable, says:
1t is only a matter Of time when Luzon shall
be connected with Japan and Tonquin and
the Chinese empire. The Philippine Islands
now only accessible Geographically over a
short cable of about 600 miles of the Eastern
Extension Company between Manila and Hong
kong.
The experiences of the War Department in
connection with the relief of the legation at
Picking show clearly the tremendous disad-
vantage under which the United States would
labor without its own cable facilities in case
Trans Pacific cable is a military and CONNER
cial necessity II American interests are to, be
safeguarded in Asiatic regions. Such a cable
while of great value militarily, will especially
further industrial interests and facilitate COM
mercial operations AS 1t is officially known
that an American cable can only enter Japan
from the east and not from Japan, China or
the Philippines the only possible route is that
already recommended to Congress by the Presi-
dent. via Hawaii and Guam.