The Cordova daily times., 1919-03-27
FAIRY TALBOT HARDSHIPS IS
 BRANDED LIE

A short time ago we published an Associated Press dispatch from the East which told of preparations being made by the Salvation Army to invade the Anchorage division for the for the purpose of improving conditions among the soldiers doing guard duty in that part of Alaska. At that time it was not clear why such action was deemed necessary, but advices com ing from Boston and other Eastern cities recently have solved the mys- tery. The attention of sympathetic Fasteners was directed toward Alas ka by the letter of an imaginative young sdhier, in which he had in- formed the home folks at Boston that the soldier boys of Alaska had been subjected to great neglect-particu- larly the boys assigned to guard duty in Anchorage division.
 The letter was accepted at its face value, and promptly referred to the Boston Herald. The Herald printed the letter and called upon it's readers to remedy the un-American condition described therein; other papers took up the cry, without Investigating the case, and letters and clippings now coming to Alaska indicate that the neglected soldier story has received very wide circulation, not an editor apparently having been sufficiently we'll enough acquainted with Alaska to know that conditions such as those described by the Anchorage guard do not obtain in any part of the North land where soldiers are stationed.
 Lieutenant Charles B. Knight, off cer commanding the Anchorage de- tachment, has written a letter to the Boston paper, making dignified, courteous refutation of the mislead- ing statements contained in the letter in question, and setting forth the con- ditions as they really exist, conclud- ing with the request that the Herald give as much publicity to his letter as was given to the letter of the irrespon- 7. sible soldier responsible for the threatened Salvation Army invasion r of Alaska.
 The Boston article, which was re- printed by many other Eastern news papers, is as follows:
 "In these triumphant hours, when all q America is showering well-de- served p1audits upon our victorious boys in France, would like to call the attention of your readers to a little band of American soldiers who ] are doing their bit in our country, under circumstances requiring as much courage and endurance, and as fine a brand of patriotism and self sacrifice as that which inspired our heroes at the front. These boys en- listed before the first draft was called, hoping thereby to be given the prece- dence in going to France to fight the Hun. To their bitter disappointment trey were ordered instead, to Alaska to guard the government property at the great Matanuska coal fields near Anchorage-oneo of the most desolate' God-forsaken regions in the world. In this land of horror it is night for hall the year and the temperature is 6o degrees below zero.
 Fierce blizzards sweep down from the mountains and bury the land be- meath twenty feet of snow and ice and raging tides in Cook inlet-the nearest harbor--prevent the entry of any ship after winter sets in, thus cutting them off utterly from the out . side world except when dog team struggles to them overland with the mail In summer the conditions are almost worse, for then the land Is converted into a swamp in which breed countless millions of the most virulent mosquitoes. But perhaps the hardest thing of all for them. to bear is that they are forgotten and ignored by the people back home in the States. Neither the Y. M. c. A. nor the K. of c. have given them hut or 'canteen,' the Red Cross has sent them no sweat ers and socks to keep them warm, no nurse to minister to them in sickness. The library association has sent no books, nor has any other organization done anything to ameliorate their lives. Recently the influenza has at- tackled them, and, having no hospital, they have to care for their sick them selves, in their own barracks-it is difficult how any of them can escape infection under these circumstances. But with all this hardship to endure, l M H n ' YJyI>