The Sentinel=record., 1918-08-04

hshed reports today that General March chief of staff, had told the senate military committee that Cen eral Pershins estimated the Ameri can casualties in the Marne fighting at l2,00O not only grossly misinform- ed the country, but caused constar- nation and regret among war depart ment officials
 Noi only did General March hotly deny that he had made any such statement, 5ut the senators who con ferred with him, as well also de- clared he had not done so Sacre- tary Baker, in talk with newspaper correspondents and the committea on public information in a formal state ment denounced the reports. When the senators at the weekly confer ence asked the chief of staff if he had any estimate of the American asualties in the Marne fighting General March replied that he had not
 Later in his semi-weekly confer ence with the Washington corre- spondents, the chief of staff was asked:
 Have you any estimate as 10 the number Of casualtioso"
 General Marchs reply was:
 None whatever"
 General March and the senators who conferred with him explained that he had been asked what the to- ial of casualties already reported was and that the general had replied be- tween l2,000 and 14.000. This num- Der IS the sum total of the war de partments official daily list and is pn iished in many newspapers throughout the country. 1t makes no account of the Marne fighting
 General March reply was distortell into representing him as saying Gen erdl Pershing estimated the cost of the Marne battle at that numbe
 The real situation as 10 the casus. ties in the big fight is that General Pershing has been unable to estimate the number or to begin sending the names because the wounded are scat tered through French and British hos pitals at widely separated points and 1t has been physically impossible 10 assemble an accurate and complete list. This, however. is being done 8 rapidly as possible, but Secretary Baker and General March are determ- ined that the country shall not bel needlessly distressed by an inaccurate casualty list which might need to be corrected. The list will be brought 10 the United States at theearliest possible moment.
 At his conference today. referring to Secretary Bakers statement otI last night General March said
 "Ihe casualty question: under stand, was to be covered by the sec retary of war, ai!d believe he did sayl something about it. General Persh- ing replied to our order to send in all casualties that the delay in sending them was due 70 the fact that our men were serving under the British ana | iNiiNI dS NfH dS lHuti bul own commanders, but that casuaImvs would be cabled as soon as they had been completely verified. You canI we'll imagine how disastrous it would be if the casualties were cabled ana then corrections had 10 be made T,le distress would be beyond all ques ton and so these lists are going eel come in and as soon as they do come in they will be given out whatever they are"
 Secretary Baker in his talk to the correspondents said:
 T have before me copy of the Washington Times carrying state ment that General Pershing estimates United States casualties at 12,000 anu says that General March said that to the military affairs committee. Tha.' is not so. General March said noth- ing on the subject, nor did l. No body said anything on that subject O. anything like it that can recall
 There was chart showing the total number of casualties in the American expeditionary forces wp .1 the present time of all kinds, from all sources and that aggregated some thing like 12,000 and that chart was I.a.,.,. l,,,t (.