Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-08-29
President Directly Orders
Departure From Panama
Of 10th Infantry; Bar
barous Warfare Alleged.
ACTION JUSTIFIED
OFFICIALS DECLARE
Situation in China When
Powers interviewed to
Save Foreigners, Cited
as Precedent for Act.

Washington, D. c., Aug. 2s.-Ameri.
can soldiers will be landed in Nicara'
qua within the next forty-eight hours.
On advice of conditions said to be so
serious as to Justify there being kept
secret in Washington, President TAFT
at Beverly today, personally directed
the INN ediate movement Of the tenth
u. S. infantry, now on the Panama ca
nal zone. to Nicaragua to guard Ameri-
can lives and property. Dispatches OF
last night and early today pictured the
situation as being SO acute that an i'm.
mediate movement Of large force OF
troops was necessary.
Allegations Of conditions bordering
on barbarism and acts even worse
than those which took the troops Of
the United powers into China to quell
the boxer REBELLION have been received
at the state department within the last
twenty-four hours. The deliberate
murder of two Americans, Dodd and
Phillips, after they had been wounded
and were helpless following the massa-
ere at Leon on August 19 focused at.
tention on the previous reports of bar.
baric warfare"
The United States marines now be-
Ing rushed south on the Prairie, after
(. being landed at Colon, will have to be
transferred across the isthmus by
railroad and taken on the cruiser Cali
fornia. on the Pacific side for trans.
portation to Corinto. That will mean
q delay OF at least week.
Tenth at Corinto in Two Days.
The tenth, recruited to full war
strength and fully equipped for cam
paigning in the tropics, is to be taken
aboard merchant ships in the harbor
OF Panama and rushed. They will be
on the ground in Corinto in less than
two days. The soldiers will be dis
patched along the line of the railway
from Corinto to Managua, the capital,
at points where American Minister
Weitzel and Commander Terhune of
the gunboat Annapolis believe they
will afford most protection. Col.
Henry A. Greene commands the regi-
ment.
The Pacific mail ship now at Pan
ANA will sail tomorrow with one bat
TALON leaving the remainder of the
regiment to be brought up to Corinto
In other ships.
With the arrival of the tenth and
the marines now on the way, United
States forces actually landed in Mic.
aragua and on American warships
available for landing will be increased
to about $500 men. Further improve
ment in the situation will be made
probably late today or tomorrow when
the gunboat Denver arrives at San
Juan del Sur, the cable station.
To Keep Wires Open.
vrl.->,~I, +I,a of t1,o uiro.
less equipment of the Denver at the
cable station and that of the collier
Justin. lying at Corinto with women
and children aboard, the state depart
ment at Washington practically will
be in communication with American
Minister Weitzel at Managua. The
American troops will be expected to
keep free from interruption the tele-
graph lines along the railroad from
Managua to Corinto.
These lines have been frequently in
terrupted by small bands of rebels
taking stations along the route and
the American forces of marines has
been inadequate to keep the route
open. Commander Terhune recently
made one attempt to clear the line
but the rebels showed such a hostile
Z LUdL uc W oo AoA SS0 W eti IL 0oShA'
Hold Course Is Justified.
Although the course of the United
States in landing military forces on
foreign soil without express approval
of congress is now under investiga-
ton by a special senate committee,
the state department takes the posi-
ton that it is supported not only by
precedent in China and Central Amer
lea, but is also bound the so-called
Washington convention to protect
rights and property of foreigners and
to further see that the administration
in Nicaragua is changed only by fair
and free expression by ballot.
Furthermsre, it is said, there are
fully 100 Americans owning planta-
tions in Nicaragua who must be pro-
tected from attack and looting Of their
property.
Rebel firing upon American marines
Is said to have been frequent within
the last few days. New attacks upon
women and children and other non
combatants are reported. In the rebel
shelling of Managua, American Minis
ter Weitzel reported that an sAmeri-
can collector of customs, named Ham
and several other Americans narrow
ly escaped injury by bursting shells,