The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-20
GREAT BRUTALITY SHo
Orders Were Issued to Ia|1 No Prisoners.
Two Aged MAtiv~ shot Dg0 While Bearing : whits 1lAe
 Woman and cAildzsa 1nzz- #
 d to Death. Z!

: Washington. May 1s.-During the III Ippinc investigation before the esna13 Committee today. letter was read m General Hughes denying that hs had evoe given orders for the water cure and aaSt ing that if such charge was ma1e n wanted the fullest investigation of ft. { Corporal Richard O'Brten. fox1G1y ~ the 26th infantry. testined to sseing 11i water cure administered. He slso a111 that officers violated spantsh wounon at one town. At Iloilo. he said. Maio< Cook, Captain Mcdonald and Lkeut@en1E Plumer of Company M. became fntoSle cated at a reception. took off their coet(| seized somo of the native women and iz1 sisted upon their dancing with them much to the disgust of the women. whd were above the peasant class. <.
 He said he was not on good terfms with his captain. He also said that in ono fn- stance, woman with two children. W6s9 burned to death In a bamboo shack when the troops were burning the town. %
 Used Explosive Dulleta.
 Dumdum bullets and explosive buI1o<ds he stated. were issued to the trcops 1n the regular army, and did horrible exe- cution.
 There were ..unwritten orders to take rru prisoners" which were carried out in ono campaign. He did not know who is6u6d the orders, but they were understood to be in effect. M \
 Under close questioning. he adnfttsG that he had seen many prisoners and klox were being treated kindly by the of5c6zu and men. #
 o'Brien described the capture of Lana- sin. in Panay, when soldier fired at ( native boy on a caraboo. He nissed. then all the soldiers fired, himself ln~ ciuded This was not donc by nrAsrs Th6. shooting brought the people to their doc z. One old man was shot In. the abdomen. Two other old men came out with white flag and both were shot down.
 The sergeant reported to Captain nfc- Donald that he had killed two more mig gers" Another case was that of wo- man and two children. one in her arma. who were killed and then burned up In their houses.
 O'Brien said that when the company was out marching single file at night in the mountains, the order came back along the line to take no prisoners. but he did not know who Issued the order In case there was fighting the natives either fled or were killed
 It was 'unwritten law out there to taks no prisoners.n
 He had seen dumdum bullet strike . man ard take the top of his head of. He could not tell whether 1t was one oe his own comrades or native Answering questions as to the burning of a woman and two children, the woman was in 4 bamboo shack and appeared at the door or window No effert was made to req cue her. but it would have been impos- sibie, although she came to the door while the shack was burning.
 Sometimes Took Prisoners
 In answer to Senator McComas he saia that his company occasionally took prisoners that were not kilfed He had seen many prisoners held by other con- mands and they were all treated kindly and were not shot or killed He admitted that the killing of prisoners was not gen- erai The killing of prisoners was d matter that lay with the officers
 Further questions brought out the fact that the officers had sold the rations with Captain Mcdonald. This was due. he said. to the fact that Mcdonald had failed to issue the rations due to his men. He believed. though he had no proof. tha tthe officer had sold the rations which should have been issued to the men. He said that they had meat only twice week and bread only twice during the entire eighteen months of his stay In the Philippines.
 He went on to say that there was $ price on the Captains head offered by the insurgents because of the officers cruel ties. Witness had seen him strike d Filipino prisoner on the head with re- volver and said that the water cure was to the same prisoner after he had taken the oath of allegiance.
 Answering Senator Dietrich he said that his command usually treated the Filipino kindly. He said his captain was known as a "nigger hater." He to'Brien) had never received orders from his captain to kill prisoners. Replying to Senator Patterson he said the explo- sive bullets did not have the government stamp on them. He expects to receive some of these bullets tomorrow when he will continue hls testimony.