The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-07-25
DANIELS REPLIES TO SENATE.
REFERS TO SUBMARINE ATTACKS
ON AMERICAN FORCEs
Glcavcs' Report OF U-bOat E6OrtS
Against Troop Ships Defcpdlel by
Secretary of Navy.


Washington. July 22.A-se4etary
Daniels, in a letter to the enate
made public today. explains at bngth
the information on which h6Nbased
his statement of July regarding sub
marine attacks on the American$cxp
dictionary force. and reveals the jncon-
elusive reports Of the encountgt had
reached the navy departmen& five
days before the statement was sue,l
The secretary wrote in reply II Sen
ator Tillman, chairman of tnpI HAWAI-
committee, who sent a letter Bf in.
quiry after q resolution had nakh in
troduced in congress REQUESTING that
the department submit the text Of
Rear Admiral Gleaves' dispatch 81. the
subject Several senators have {harg-
cd during debate that the seor3sary's s
statement was grossly exag1&rated
paraphrase Of the official repOx pr e.
pared by the public incormati09E & om-
mittce. The resolution Of qulry,
however, was not passed. %TE
In his letter Mr.. Daniels defe11s the
statement and assures the navsU Ecom-
mittee that the text Of the eave
d,"patch is subject to it's insu btlon,
although it obviously can'tih made
public because Of the names o1ypssels
and other information it conf ms
Late in the afternoon Of y g.
wrote the secretary. "the como
nows came that the last ship the
conveys and transports carryi4 the
first American soldiers and ma es to
fight in France had reached it& esti-
nation in safety. without acck{ Il OIL
injury to men or ships. The a de-
partment had known for five Az prior
to their arrival that the att by
submarines had been made, you
can we'll understand the nfu
anxiety lest torpcdoST shout lavt
caused the loss of some of d tays
men who were carrying heir
hazardous enterprise. Y01 ynas
sTsnassns tsl .unsp pSosssiIss 81 q r.
which the news brought. TINS fslleI
was. OF course. shared by all other.
in the department who had been ap
prehensive every minute since Admir-.
a Gleaves in brief cable had report
ed that submarines had made attack.
upon two divisions of the transports
"As soon as the news was com
nunicated by an officer of the depart
mont, I fastened to the war depart
ment to apprise the secretary of wal
of the fact
| "At once a statement was prepared
and given out that evening which
knew would instantly crafty al
Americans. The message of Rear Ad
miral Gleavcs. announcing the attack
of course, had not been given to thu
public. The statement 1 gave to tho
public conveyed tho feeling of all
who had been waiting and hoping fol
the reassuring telegram. The facts
were stated not in the very words OF
the Gleaves cablegram. for it is the
immemorial policy Of the Departments
in time of war not to employ the lar
guage OF message coming in code.
1.-The important part of the state
ment given to the public was that al
our soldiers and marines and ships
had been conveyed to France in safety
Two of the groups arrived without
being attacked and two were unsuc-
cessfully attacked. If the terms bat
tie and attacked in force are open
to criticism, the fact still remains tha.
the rejoicing was warranted. If tn;
torpedoes in either Of the attacks, haC
sunk American ships, the criticism,
made would not lave concerned Itself
with the difference between wha;
might have been called a battle OF
an encounter or q brush"