Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-29
|B[AMES SUPER|ORS |
FOR PRISON ABUSES
Lieut.. "HardboiIed" Smith
Ayers Maj. Gen. Strong and
Col. Grimstead Knew.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
/ NEW YORK, July 29.-Responsibii-
ity for cruel treatment of American
soldiers at prison farm No. g., near
Paris, were placed squarely upon the
shoulders of Maj. Gen. F. S. Strong
and Col E. P. Grimstead by Lieut..
Frank II. (Hardboiled) Smith in testi-
| mony given by him today, before. a
subcommittee of the House of Repre-
sentatives at Governors Island.
Asked by Representative Rcvall c.
Johnson of South Dakota, chairman
of the subcommittee, if his superior
officers were acquainted with con-
sidered them responsible for them,
Smith replied:
Absolutely. Those higher in au-
thority knew everything that took
place in the prison"
What were your orders when you
were placed in commando" he was
asked.
Tells of Severe Orders.
Smith replied that he had been told
by Col. Grimstead that the orders of
Gen. Strong were that prisoners were
to be treated with the most ruthless
severity.
"Grimstead told me-" Smith added.
that the men were to be treated as
general prisoners
The witness explained that treat
ment of general prisoners was much
more severe than that of minor Of
| tenders under ordinary conditions, al
though most of the men sentenced to
farm No. were guilty only of such
misdemeanors as being absent with
out leave.
WAS it your understanding" he
was asked, that these men were to
| be treated in such a way that they
never would come back to Paris or
pass through these farms AGAIN."
YES" was the answer.
In reply to an inquiry as to wheth-
er he ever discussed conditions at the
farm with his superiors. Smith re-
piled:
| II told the adjutant that some one
| would be in Leavenworth before we
got through"
What was the name of the adju-
| tant?''
| "Adjt. Hanson"
You believe there would be trouble
/ because of the complaints?"
"I realized some one would be made
| the goat"
| Smith was asked about complaints
of prisoners that they had lost money
at the prison farm. He declared that
very few of the men sent there
brought with them more than few
| francs. Most of the men sent to the
farm of which he was in command
came from another prison known as
the Bastile, where, it has been
charged. prisoners were treated more
| cruelty than in any other of the
l dafanfinn ~ mi
Took Up Complaints.
Smith testified that many of the
soldiers who came from the Bastile
| complained that they had been unable
| to get funds for which they had been
| given receipts. He declared he took
up this subject in correspondence, but
| that he had been unable to get sat
isfactory explanation. -
/ Asked II he had records Of this cor
frespondence, he said he had not Gex-
| planning that when he was placed on
| deavored to locate the records of pris-
/! on farm number 2. but was informed
they had disappeared.
Denies Prisoners Were Beaten.
Smith denied that prisoners at the
farm he commanded ever were beaten.
He said he disciplined Sergt Clarence
Ball, whom he once saw strike q
man. The worst conditions at the farm
resulted from a shortage of food and
fuel. Many of the men slept in the
mud on straw, he stated. and he had
tried vainly to remedy conditions.
/ Smith told the committee that al
though his home was in San Diego.
| Cal, he had enlisted in the Arizona
National Guard in 1918, and was COM
| missfoned when he went to the Mexi-
can border in 1916. He was in charge
of prison farm number from Octo-