The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-06-05


munition they had agreed to carry and
delivered these supplies to the enemy,
and when the marines were starving
refused to share with them or point
out to them the edible roots to be
found in the country through which
they were marching. Whereupon
Major Waller ordered them shot
The Situation at Basay.
Those who say they cannot under
stand why Waller ordered these execu-
tons at Basay, when the journeys
end had been reached, fail to under
stand the situation, says Mr. Bonsall
There was more danger at Basay than
in the wilderness. 1t was in the sim
liar town of Balangiga, 90 miles away.
that the butchery CT the men of the
Ninth infantry took place. When Mr.
Bonsall arrived at Basay he found a
crowd of savages on the beach eating
Shiny. uncooked fish, fresh from the
sea. In the swamps round about could
be heard the conch shells of the hordes
of Juan Colernos, rejoicing over the
slaughter of Americans at Balagiga,
and with these insurgents the people
Of the town were in daily communica-
ton. Night after night attacks were
made and repulsed by remnant of
company of the Ninth. And all the
time" writes Mr. Bonsall, Eve had
before us the horrible picture, like
some blood-drenched canvas of Goya.
of the 20 survivors of Balangiga: one
with an arm Topped off, another with
a leg; there a man with his eyes
gouged out, and one with 90 CHASTITY
cuts across his body. In none of the
fights of which | have knowledge did
the Samarites ask for quarter-they
do not understand fighting in that way
but had they done so I do not be-
lieve it would have been granted by
any man who saw the living and the
| dead witnesses to their fiendish saw
agery These are the things which
the marines saw when they landed at
Basay and it must be borne in mind
that there were the closest ties of
friendship between the murdered men
of the Ninth and Walters marines.
They had stood shoulder to shoulder
in the battle of Tien-Tsin and walked
side by side on the march to Pekin.
Again the critics are at fault-through
| ignorance of the facts, not wrong
headedness. perhaps-as to the motive
which actuated Waller IN Furnishing
the traitors in his ranks as summary
as possible"
Not an Act of Revenge.
1t was certainly not an act of re-
venge, Mr.. Bonsall points out. Waller
realized that it required only unity of
action between the insurgents inside
and those outside to insure the slaugh-
ter of the garrison at Basay. At any
moment his prisoners might have
brought to successful termination
their career of treason, and Waller de-
termined to go to the limit of his au-
thority under martial law and put
them where they could do no harm.
Right to Punish Unquestioned.
There seems to be no doubt as to
the guilt of the men. This plea was
hot raised in the course of the court
martial The charge seemed to be
that Waller had no right to execute
the men so summarily, even If they
were guilty. And what becomes of
the thousand and one drumhead
courts-martial, followed by summary
execution for treason and espionage,
which the annals of the Rebellion re-
veal-and that, 1t will be remembered,
was the most civilized war ever
waged?
lone more incident of the many that
came under my observation and recon
ciled me to the character of the war
we are waging in Samar. A little
midshipman just out from Annapolis
was patroling the strait in yawl from
the flagship New York He was after
the smugglers who bring arms to the
insurgents from Leyte. The great
gale had blown the yawl out into the
Pacific, and when it subsidized little
Noah and his six men were exhausted.
Their water had given out and they
tried to make Basay, Admiral Rodgers
having ordered them not to land ex-
cept at an armed post. The wind died
away while Basay was still two miles
Off Two of his men were delirious
with thirst. and there was the little
village of Nipa Nipa only few hun
dred yards away flying the white flag
of peace and friendship. Noah, as he
floated near the shore, lifted UP his
empty water-jar and the kindly people
on the beach understood. They lifted
up water-jars overlooking with the
precious fluid and pointed at the white
flag to reassure him. He pushed his
boat into the surf, and telling his men
to wait In the boat, advanced some so
yards up the beach where the good
Samaritans were awaiting him with
their. water-jars. AS he drank his first
deep draught two of the natives-one
a woman-crept behind him and bur.
led their knives In his back"
And these are the people against
whom, It is declared, our troops should
wage war according to Roberts Rules
of Order and the Handy Compendium
NJ Euquettel