The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-01-02
RED TAPE
DELAYED
BAD NEWS
War Department Very Slow in
Gathering Casualty Lists
and Sending
Them.
TOOK TWENTY-FIVE DAYS
Red cros. Better Equipped for Work,
But Was Not Allowed to
Hasten Infor-
nation.
TOOK TWENTY TWO DAYS

[United Press Leased Wire Service.l
WASHINGTON, Jan. parents
and relatives of American soldiers
killed or wounded in France would
have been doomed to longer sus-
pense and anxiety about their boys
had not the English Waacs come to
the rescue and helped get casualties
lists to the country, Senator Weeks,
Massachusetts, told the senate to-
day.
Since the Waacs, an organization
of women. took hold of the Ameri-
can casualties lists, the time OF get
ting the names to this country has
bsan greatly expedited Weeks said.
in an attack on alleged war depart
ment delay in handling such infor-
nation. An average OF twenty-five
DAYS was required to get the report
Of an American soldiers death ready
for cabling to this country. Weeks
declared. In the case OF wounded,
this time was reduced. he said, but
"the average time required for trans
mitting all reports OF casualties az
gregated eighteen and one-1ourtn
days before the names were caDled
to the United States
This is practically double the time
required by the British authorities
under their system, Weeks said.
Weeks charged the war depart
nlent with failing to cooperate with
the Red Cross either here or abroad
Quoting from testimony OF W. n.
Castle, of the Red Cross, before the
senate military affairs committee,
Weeks told how the Red Cross mad
data on casualties which it was not
c;x
war departments machinery had
completed it's tedious processes of
checking up. Hundreds of letters
written by wounded boys to their
fathers, mothers and other relatives.
and entrusted to- the Red Cross,
were held up by the war department
until an official report Of the casual
ties had been made, Weeks said.
Castle finally got the war depart
ment to allow such letters TO De
forwarded to relatives as soon as
received, Weeks said.
The Red Cross, Weeks said, was
IL: many ways better equipped than
the department for reporting casual.
ties. because it covered thousands OF
the French hospitals to which Amerl.
can soldiers were taken. AS PROOF
of this, Weeks said:
"The fac. IS, the war departments
information has been frequently
wrong, and has caused much suffer
ing. During the month of August
the Red Cross had the cases of over
200 men who had been reported by
the war department as missing in
action, but who had been found by
the Red Cross in hospitals in France.
They never had been missing.
Another example will show how
jnaccurate the war department has
been. During the week ending De
cember IA, the Red Cross received
an average of twenty letters a day
from parents who had been advised
their sons had been killed on spe-
cifIc date In every case the par
ents wrote they received communi-
cations from their sons subsequent
to the date given by the war depart
ment."
Weeks says a strong reason why
the American military abroad should
have co-cperated with the Red Cross
vas that American Officers lad no
access to British or French hospitals.
but the Red Cross could go every
where, and hence had the opportu.
nifty to get quickly data the army
had to wait for.
1t is too late to remedy the evils
growing out Of the failure of the
casualties list system to work, Weeks
said, but he pointed out other de-
fects in the hope. he said, that If the
United States ever had another war
the same mistakes vii be avoided.
The Red Cross roll call in Sioux
CITY Wa answered by S.1O2 members,