The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-01-03
Scores Delay in Forwarding
Casualty Reports
from Overseas
FREQUENT ERRORS
ALSO CRITICISED
Massachusetts, Senator Complains Chief
ly of Trouble in Adjutant Generals
Office Head of Which Should Not
Have Been Changed, He Says.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3-The war
department was sharply criticised in
the senate yesterday by Senator Weeks
of Massachusetts, Republican, for de-
lays and errors in compiling casualties
among the expeditionary forces and for
failure to cooperate with the Red Cross
IN the matter of forwarding letters from
wounded soldiers to relatives in this
country
Criticism was directed especially at
the office of the adiutant general of the
army, Senator Weeks saving that Mai.
Gen. Mccain, the adjutant general who
retired last summer to command a di-
vision and who was succeeded by Mai.
Gen. Harris, should have been retained.
He could not believe, he said, that a
change in the Office during the war was
businesslike or desirable
He declared that the war depart
ment S information as to casualties
often had been wrong.
During the week ended Dee H." he
stated, 'the Bed Cross received an av-
erage of 20 letters day from parents
who had been advised by the war
| department that their sons had been
killed on a specific date In every one
of these cases the parents wrote that
| they had received communication from
their boys subsequent to the date given
| by the war department 1t $, ams al
most miraculous that so many errors
could have occurred in cases of this
| kind
1t also was worth noting, the senator
! continued, that in sending reports ei
casualties to families the department
been killed or wounded, without further
| explanation, and that so far as h,
knew the department had no other in
formation on the subject
''That work, - he added, I" has very
properly been taken up by the Rec
Cross, and it is testified that in tn,
neighborhood of 10000 letters a weel
have been sent to the families of thos,
killed or injured, giving the facts re
lating to the death or condition of tn,
injured man.
| Describing Red Gross methods, Sena
tor Weeks said that agency in Angus
located in French hospitals 200 Ameri
can soldiers reported missing by tn
war department. These men, he dc
clared, had communicated with the Re-
Cross, believing that through it thei
relatives would learn of their condition
but the information never was trans
mitted, because of an order by the dc
partment prohibiting the mailing o
such letters. Meanwhile the relative
had no knowledge as to the location 0
the men, though later the order wa
; modified and the agency was permitte
to forward the letters intrusted to il
care.
The theory under which the order wa
issued, Senator Weeks said, was tina
the department wished absolute accl
racy, which was desirable, but he COZ
tended it did not follow that such il
formation would be any more accurat
or as accurate as information obtaine
= by the Red Cross through its individu;
. representatives.
i Adit. Gen. Harris, he explained, w;
not responsible for the order.
Zone of the most glazing erro
Q shown in the lack of coordination b
f tween the war department and the Re
Cross service the senator said .
Q found in the fact that hospital lis
; were not, until the latter part of n
i vember of this past year, furnished Il
!. Red Cross, although in the possessic
of the war department
Senator Lewis of Illinois, Democrs
said delays were due in part to cab
conditions that resulted in control
. the cables being taken over by the go
eminent.
Senator Weeks replied that there h;
l. been no complaint of this kind from t
e war department, but Senator Lew
c said a detailed report would shortly
It made public, making the matter clear.
;e WOMEN TAILED FOR Perjury