The Washington herald., 1918-08-03
CASUALTIES
WILL BE GIVEN
In FEW DAYS
Exact Information on Our
Losses Soon Ready, War
Department Says. :
WOUNDED SCATTERED
Men Taken to Nearest Base
Hospital; Information
Hard to Assemble;
WOUNDED SCATTERED

Exact information as to the loss
es suffered by our army in the
present offensive will be given the
American people within a day or
two.
Gen. Pershing is beginning to get
complete data on casualties. which
he will cable to this country as
soon as possible. This announce
ment was made yesterday by Sec
retary Baker.
ARRANGEMENTS have been COM
pleted by the Postorfice Department
which now controls the telegraph
and telephone systems. and the
Committee on Public Information.
for the prompt transmission of the
men killed and injured in battle.
First List Almost Ready.
II is admitted at the War De-
partment that the daily casualty
lists of the past two weeks have
not adequately reflected our losses
abroad. The reason for this has
been the difficulty faced by Gen.
Pershing in collecting the informa-
tion. His first list, however. is
practically ready for cable
While losses in the present Of
fensive are expected to be serious,
and may even appear enormous to
the. casual observer, they are really
only commensurate with the fight-
ing now In progress. They win be
large because of-the terrific ashting
of the last two weeks and also be-
cause of the large number of Ameri-
can troops engaged in the conflict
Latest reports give more than 300.-
900 of our men along the battle
line.
Our troops are widely scattered,
however, and when injured are re-
moved to the nearest base hospital
which may be our own. or French
or British. This was explained by
Secretary Baker as follows:
'T have received a cablegram from
Gen. Pershing with regard to reports
Of casualties. He points out that our
troops are still widely separated,
serving in many places, and that our
wounded are taken to French and
British hospitals as well as our own,
causing great difficulty and compli-
cation in securing accurate informa-
ton. In addition to this the troops
are separated from their records while
in the area Of conflict and must de-
pend upon very Inadequate and tenn
porary telegraph lines which are sub
ject to frequent interruption and
must. for the most part, be devoted
entirely to the urgent business Of the
battle itself.
Gen. Pershing assures me that he
Is making every effort to collect cas-
ualty lists. have them confirmed and
s1l NL.N hAr xx-fn Az ia
mitted promptly"
ualty lists thus far has not exceeded
800 names in a single day, and these
lists represent only the daily toll Of
average warfare. The present battle,
however, according to Gen. March.
chief of staff. has resolved itself into
a conflict wherein both sides ''are
trying to kill as many of each other
as possible.
Make Efforts to Give Truth.
There is no disposition in the War
Department to attempt to keep the
truth of our losses from the Amerl-
can people. On the contrary, every
effort has been made to let them
know It. 1t was to correct the false
impression in some parts of the coun-
try that We were shielding losses that
caused Secretary Baker to cable Gen.
Pershing. requesting all information
possible concerning our recent and
present casualties.
One result Of the present offensive
will be the return of many invalided
officers to this country. They will be
used at cantonments and training
camps as instructors. along with
French and British officers. Sec-e-
tary Baker said yesterday the War
Department had adopted the policy
of invalided officers as instructors
wherever possible.