The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-24

1 army for the maintenance of discip- l line, I request that these papers be l shown to the Chief of Staff, Ameri- i can Expeditionary Forces.
 JOHN F. ORPHAN, Major General" The Donaldson report reads:
 ''214 West Ninety-second Street,
 New York, July b. 1919. From: Colonel T: Q. Donaldson, In- spector General. I''To: Adjutant General of the Army. I"CThrough the Inspector General of the Army)
 Subject: Conditions at Q reple"e- ment battalion near Paris, commonly known as Farm No. 2. "l---In accordance with instructions from the Secretary of War, received this date, through Colonel F. F. Harts- horn, General Staff, Room PAT, State, War, and Navy Building, Washing ton, D. C., directing a. statement as to conditions at a replacement battalion east of and near Paris, commonly known as Fam No. 2, and as to steps taken to remedy conditions there, the following outline is submitted from memory, as my report on this sub ject is not now accessible:
 "2---The battalion or farm referred to was established in the Fall of 1918 for the purpose of receiving and evac- uating to their organizations soldiers arrested in Paris whose cases had previously been considered both at the Provost MarshaPs heaI5iquartens 10 Rue St. Anne, and at the Prison de la Roquette, Paris.
 Farm No. ? was not under the jurisdiction of the Commanding Gen eral, District of Paris, nor of the Commanding General, Service of Sup ply. It was under the immediate command of a First Lieutenant of the 15Sth Infantry by the name of Smith. q do not remember his initials,) known by the men under him as Hard Boiled Smith. Lieutenant Smith had two companies of his reg iment under him as guards, his own | Company K) being one of them. His su ubordinate assistants were the of ficers and non-commission officers of these companies, a First Lieuten- ant and detachment of the Medical Department, and also few marines. The Colonel of the 18th Infantry whose regiment was stationed near Farm No. 2, had general supervis- ion over it, and, in his sworn state ment taken by me, said that he had inspected the place at least twice a week.
 ''3-About the middle of December, 1918, Farm No 9 was discontinued
 
 were transferred to a replacement camp some distance north of Farm No. ?, but about the same distance east of Paris. All of the 15Sth In- fantry, with the exception of a few men, were relieved and ordered to Bordeaux for return to the United States. The new camp, with a few exceptions. was under an entirely changed personnel, both of officers and enlisted men. Toward the latter part of December this camp was placed under the jurisdictio of the commanding General District of Paris
 There were no complaints to brutality as to this camp, but the place was simply a quagmire and mud at least a foot deep was over its entire area Upon the recommen- dation of the inspectors this camp was discon tnued, and all its person. nel transferred to a set of large I buildings in the northern part of Paris, known as Olingincourt bar racks.
 | "4-Charges as to brutality and other conditions complained of at Farm No. were thoroughly fnvesti- gated by the Inspector Generals De- partment and all available evidence considered. As a result of the in vestigaton. the Colonel of the 15sth Infantry and every officer and non- commissioned officer who was either directly or indirectly responsible for the deplorable conditions found to exist were recommended for trial by general court-martial.
 5-All the reports with the &C., companying evidence were referred to the Judge Advocate, A. D. F., Col onel Blanton Winship, to formulate charges and recommend Judge Advocate and members of a general court-martial for the trial of such of f1cers and men as by the evidence ap- | peared to be guilty.
 , "6. All the officers and men recom- mended for trial were tried except , the colonel of the 15Sth Infantry, and those who were convicted received severe sentences.
 "7-The colonel of the 15Sth In- :. fantry was brought before an eff ciency board, of which Colonel F. S. Armstrong. cavalry (now on duty in the remount service, Quartermaster Corps, Washington), was president "8-The statements contained in the enclosed newspaper clipping taken from The New York Times are in general fully sustained by the testi- mony of a large number of witnesses. The statement. however, that one man committed suicide Is not correct. He made the attempt, but was dis covered before he bled to death, and was taken to Q hospital
 T took his testimony, which was very rambling and incoherent He was o man of low mentality, who did not speak or understand English very l well, and the surgeon in charge of his case informed me that he was , suffering from a form of depressive insanity, with suicidal mania, and the scars on his arms indicated pre- vious attempts to commit suicide. The treatment he received at Farm No. 3 evidently aggravated his case, "Nor was it conclusively shown, as , stated in the clipping. that the guards used blackjacks although there ap- l l pears to be no doubt that they at times brutally beat men with their fists
 , '9-The conditions at No. 10 Rus 9t Anna and a tho Prison de Ia Ra