The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-02-02

VINCENT
Continued Irun Page IL

even deeper purpose under his tall
/ about brewing trouble in China, an,
sending an army to the Philippines ant
stationlng twenty thousand men il
| Honolulu $50 that they might b,
| handy Some of those Britishers in
| deed will go to their graves probably
in the full faith that the Yankee ma
tion has a roaring lion loose in the
North Pacific who is going about tc
! do all kinds of terrible things
The Chief Engineer of the Sierra
however, possibly sized up more gen
eraI opinion when he observed. with
shrewd Scotch smile: ''The mon Z
a fool to talk about his bushes,
like that
Now, the Major having seen the tale
get into type, says that he is not an
army officer at all, which would seem
to be true, but that he got his title in
the volunteers. The Majors interview in
last night s Bulletin follows:
u am here purely on a matter of
pleasure and private business.
81 am not connected with the ser
vice as indicated by the Advertiser.
The whole thing is utterly wrong.
"Such talk as that outlined would
do more harm than good even for your
people here and | can not understand
paper printing it.
q suppose the whole thing arose out
of an argument on board the ship when
as a citizen talking with a group OF
others on affairs of the Pacific l ex-
pressed myself as of the opinion that
Hawaii would be splendid place for
large bodies of troops. The talk came
in connection with the opening of the
1o1 = hn 4 r1Da
ment of the Pacific.
''Whon the advertiser man called
On me last evening at my hotel I told
j .n tIau ala care TO talk of the
matter. He said that Mr.. Pratt had
said SO and so. l told him that he
would have to look to Mr.. Pratt for
his information. 1t is downright silly
to presume that a casual smoking room
should be put down as an
official or semi-official expression of
what is to be done in the FUTURE
The Bulletin took the Majors de-
NAL, and the Major at his own valua-
tinn on morning reconsideration, and
let it go at that. The name of Mr.
Pratt, by the way, was not mentioned
in Major Vincents hearing by the Adj
vertiser reporter. The Star, with much
more fairness, went behind the Major
to the passengers on the Sierra and,
while giving the Major IS denial, bears
Dut the Advertiser story of the
Major and his sayings in its essential ,
fea lures, as the following from that
paper will show:
50 OF all the rot l ever read that sup
posed interview with me in the Adj
vertiser is about the worst, said Ma !
jor F. c. Vincent of Washington, D.
g., this morning. The idea that |
that there would be fifteen
,r twenty thousand troops sent here is 1,
so absurd that there is hardly any use
talking about it beyond making posi- |
tive denial. reporter came to me |
and asked me as to my business here !
and that | refused to discuss, as | had |
every right to do. On the afternoon of
he sailing of the Sierra reporters for |
some of the San Francisco papers came
aboard SEEKING to interview me, but TO !
hem, as to others, l had nothing to
'ay except as private citizen. !
g Coming down on the ship in the
curse of casual conversation the mat
er of the strategic Importance of the
Hawaiian Islands came up and the |
opinion was passed that a large body
If troops would be useful in ease of
if stationed here | made
ONE chance remark on the subject and
hat is all. AS for making what the
Advertiser calls "making startling adj
nlsslons or saying that the people of
honolulu need not be surprised to see
5000 or 100000 troops here-well,
here is only one way to characterize
nat sort of thing.
% The further suggestion that 1 am
ere to pick out suitable camp site
or this imaginary army is another
hoicely foolish idea. l am not an
rmy man at all, but L had the rank of
major of volunteers
g 1t is, of course, apparent that if /
ad anything to do with such mission
S has been suggested [ would be do
ng the best in the way of defeating
~ own ends by saying anything about
t. continued Major Vincent, so I
o not suppose that any sane person
tho read the article in the paper be-
eved it at all. 1t puts me in an alb !
oiUJelv wrong light, though, and | :
hall be glad to have it corrected
Major Vincent is here purely on a {
latter of pleasure and private bust
ess, he says, and viii be here for sew
raj weeks. He refused to discuss his
usiness here this morning beyond
enying that he was the fore-runner of
n invading army of 10000 men, as
lggested by the morning paper.
despite the denials of Major Vim
emit as to the authenticity of his inter
lew, there are many of his fellow pas
myers by the S. s. Sierra in this city
ho state that he openly proclaimed
imself to be a secret service agent
nd even stated directly that it was his
ission to acquire land here for the
ccommodation of large body of
oops.
q OF course | don t know what he '
I'D or did not tell the Advertiser, re ;
arked one of the passengers today,
out he certainly claimed to be in the I
ecret service, not to me alone. but to
ANY others. | talked to him about
lfferent army reservations Of land
ere and to my surprise he did not
now ANYTHING about the Dlaces al | ,