Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-26
O'BR|ENCONTRAD|CTED
Testimony of Capt. Frederick
Mcdonald.
CHARGES ARE DENIED
OTHERS STATEMENTS DENOUNC-
ED AS FALSE.
Appeared Before the Senate Committee
on the Philippines-WillB Bring
Official Documents.

Senate committee on the FniipplheS .on's'
This company was the one of which Cor
poral Richard OBrien was member ana
much of the captains testimony was n-
rected toward controverting the testimony
of that witness. He also dealt with the
Igbaras incidents, concerning which other
witnesses, also members of his company
had testified, and in addition gave consid-
cradle information concerning the conduct
of affairs in the Philippines.
Capt. Mcdonald said he had been in the
Philippines for eighteen to twenty months,
having gone there in 1899. He was asked
concerning the statements made by o Brlen
and said he had no doubt that he was the
Capt Mcdonald referred to by O'Brien.
Being asked if OBrien was at Igbaras
when the water cure was given, the Wit
ness replied that OBrien was not IN lg-
baras at that time, but that he was at San
Joaquin thirty miles away.
Did you see the water cure admins
tered there?" asked Senator Lodge.
Il did" the witness replied.
Did you witness other instances of the
water cure?'
Il never saw but one case of the admin
iStratiOn of the cure in my entire service
in the Philippines, and that is the case re-
ferred to-
The witness stated that at that time a
greater part of the town had been burned,
The Woman Story Denied.
Senator Lodge-"Do you know anything
o. the violation of the person of a Spanish
woman by American officers, as testified to
by O'Brien?"
Capt. McDonald-"No such circumstance
as that ever occur ed at that time or any
other from the beginning to the end of my
stay in the Philippines, and l have never
a mic IL
woman being violated by American
officer"
The witness went on to say that he sup
posed the woman that O'Brien had in mind
in this connection was the wife of a son
OF the mayor of Igbaras. A brother of the
woman's husband had, he said, been made
cripple for life by Montours band Of
ladrones and the body of the husbands
father, when he died, had been dragged
about the streets by Montour himself This
woman had, he said, given valuable infor-
nation to Sergeant Davis of his COMPANY
concerning the movement of the insurgents.
But the witness added that this woman
never had been maltreated by the Ameri-
cans
In this connection the witness said he
mad received letters from several subor-
dinate officers of his company confirming
what he had said concerning O'Bren's alb
sence from 1gbaras at the time.
Gives O'Brien the Lie.
Asked in regard to O'Brien's statement
that he and other officers had demeaned
themselves disgracefully at a native dance
at San Joaquin, Captain Mcdonald re-
piled: My English vocabulary is not suf-
ficient to enable me to adequately and
properly qualify that statement. 1t is a
deliberate lie from beginning to end. Major
COOK, whose name is given that of one
OF the efficers present on that occasion,
was on duty a the town of Jaro, sixty
miles distant, at the time the dance is said
to have occurred, and l was on duty at
Migoon.'
This dance was said to have occurred at
the home Of the presidente of the town of
San Joaquin and the mention of that indi-
vidual brought to the mind of Captain Nc
Donald an incident which had. he said, oc-
CURED when he first visited the town. The
presidente had then invited him to break
fast, and after he had partaken Of that
meal he became violently i'll. A physician
pronounced the symptoms to be due to
poisoning. but as some of the members of
the presidente's family also were similarly
sick it was supposed at the time that the
poisoning was accidental and the matter
was dropped. II state that as a reason
why l could not have been at the Dance"
he said. and he added that he had later
received evidence that this native official
was contributing to the insurgent cause.
The Charge as to Rations.
Captain Mcdonald also fatty contradict
ed O'Brens statement to the effect that he
or any other officers of the company had
withheld from the troops the rations to
which they were entitled In that connec-
tion he called attention to the fact that the
captain Of a company never handles the
fund for the purchase of the supplies need
ed by his command.
He also declared it was not true that the
bread received for the company had been
sold. THE soldiers he said, had fresh
bread every day in the week that We could
bake it"
AS to the statement that the insurgents
had put price upon his head because of
his cruelty, Captain Mcdonald said he
never had heard of that fact, If 1t was
fact. Il imagine he said, that the insur-
gents would have shot any officer Of the
insurgent officer who would not surrender,
but that there was any price upon my head
l had no evidence and I went about freely
and alone among the natives at all times
Never Struck Prisoner.
He also denied that he had ever struck a
prisoner over the head with a revolver as
O'Brien had charged. If he said, "a
prisoner had not done as ordered 1 should
have shot him instead Of striking him."
Speaking of the treatment of peaceable
natives by the Americans in the Philippines
captain Mcdonald said it was like the
treatment of child by his father. At first
Filipino prisoners had been given the same
character of food supplied to the American
soldiers and it was cooked in the same way.
but when 1t was found that the American
style of cooking did not agree with them.
orders were issued to supply them with
their native foods.
The Capture Of La Nog.
The witness also testified concerning the
capture of the barrio of La Nog, in con-
nection with which O'Brien had said that
an >unarmed boy had been fired upon by
the entire command. that three old men,
two of them bearing flag of truce, had
been shot down, and that a woman and
two children had been burned to death.
these supposed circumstances, but said It
was true that the barrio had been cap
tured and burned. 1t was a stockaded
stronghold Of ladrones, set upon hill, and
considered inaccessible while the Spaniards
controlled the country. When his troops
approached it the natives Ared first but