New-York tribune., 1919-07-16
Tell Committee at War
Department of Veterans
Just Out of Hospital
Beaten, Starved, Robbed
Suicide Case Vouched For
Lieut.. S'Hard Boiled'' Smith,
Accused by 100, Is Back
and i'm Confinement Here
NeW York Tribune

Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON, July Histories of
cruelties that American soldiers, some
of them recovering from wounds, we're
subjected to in the "Bastille" of the
American Provost Marshal's departm ent
in Paris and Prison Farm No. 2, outside
of Paris, without their being charged
with any offence, were detailed to the
sub committee on foreign expenditures
in the War Department this afternoon
by former American soldiers.
Among those appearing were Sidney
Kemp, formerly of Company F, 1920
Engineers, 9th Division, Of 479 West
146th Street, New York City; A. H. Man
delberg, of Base Hospital AZ, France,
of Baltimore. Md; Charles Goldberg,
ex-sergeant in Company G, 38th In
fantry, Sd Division, of 800 Central Park
Company c, a1sth Field Signal Bat
TALON, I'd Army Corps, of Baldwin,
L. l.; Alvin Bates. Of Headquarters
Troop, I'd Army Corps, 42O1 Hawthorne
Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y; George L.
Pallitto, of Company M, 113th Infantry,
29th Division, of 315 Walnut Street,
Newark, N ].
The committee has also received a
number of letters from other ex-sol-
diers offering to testify.
In opening the hearing Chairman
Royal Johnson declared that the War
Department had failed to cooperate
with him in attempts made late in
June to obtain information regarding
have abused soldiers in France.
Charges by Soldiers
Statements made at the hearing de-
veloped the following charges:
/. That soldiers in Paris who were
not "a. W. @. L."--which required
at least twenty-four hours absence
without lease-werc picked up and
confined without charges ever being
brought against them and were never
brought to trial.
2. That men just discharged from
hospitals were confined in cold cells
given inadequate food, beaten and sub
jected to other indignities.
3. That even officers were known
to have committed suicide because of
lnjustices in prison camps.
q. That at least one enlisted man and
probably others committed suicide aa
the result of prison camp treatment.
s. That more than 100 doughboys
testified against one officer accused of
cruelty and mistreatment.
Paul Boggs, a former student at
Columbia University and Somme vet
Gran, detailed conditions at st. Anne's
Hotel, Paris, and at Farm No. 2. Ht
was imprisoned after being misdi-
rected, he says, .and beaten while he
was being searched.
"Men were beaten who had just beer
discharged from hospitals" he testified
Some of them were still suffering
from gas sores. | spent my first nigh
| sleeping on the cobblestones in tn;
door of a stable, with only my heaC
and shoulders inside"
At Prison Farm No. 2, he added
he literally starved.
Ate Potato Feelings
"They threw a rock at me, when
stepped from the line to get food from
a scrap barrel" he said. 81 gladly at
potato peelings, saw at least fft.
men beaten A youngster, who haI
fought in the front lines, had thre,
teeth knocked out"
Boggs repeated the story made publ
recently bH Representative Dallinger O
Pole who, after being beaten an,
confined in a pup tent, cut his throat
At this point Chairman Johnston
some as high as colonels.. are known
to have committed suicide because O
injustices."
Sidney Kemp testified that shortl,
after he was gassed he was confined
in cold cell in midwinter withou
blankets land with insufficient food. II,
declared that sanitary conditions wer,
very bad, that sufficient number O
mess kits and eating utensils was no
provided, that personal belonging
taken from prisoners were not returned
and that he never received a trial.
Officer Is Named
The principal officer complained
against in the hearings was Lieutenan
Hard Boiled" Smith, Of Prison Farm
No. g. against whom, it was stated
more than 100 soldiers testified charg
ing cruelty. This officer, according t.
letter received to-day by Representa-
tive Dallinger, arrived in this countr,
this week and is confined at Fort Jay
/ New York.
Following the hearing Representative
Dallinger, of Massachusetts, declared
that the testimony given had more thar
substantiated the charges made.