The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-02
SLAPS WAR DEPT
Senator Weeks Criticises De-
lays in Handling Casualties.
Also In Lack of Cooperation
With the Red Cross.

Washington, Jan. 2.-The war de-
partment was sharply criticized in the
senate today by Senator Weeks of
Massachusetts,. Republican, for delays
and errors in compiling casualties
among the expeditionary forces and
for failure to cooperate with the Red
Cross in the matter Of forwarding let
ters from wounded soldiers to rela
tives in this country.
Criticism was directed especially at
the Office of the adjutant general of
, the army. Senator Weeks saying that
Major General Mccain, the adjutant
, general who retired last summer to
, command a division, and who was
succeeded by Major General Harris,
should have been retained. He could
not believe, he said, that a change in
the office during the war was business
like or desirable.
Senator Weeks declared that the
war departments information as to
casualties often had been wrong.
Mistakes All Along.
During the week ended December
! a." he added, ''the Red Cross re-
! ceived an average of twenty letters a
day from parents who had been ad-
vised by the war department that
, their sons had been killed on a spe-
cific date. In every one of these cases
the parents wrote that they had re-
4 ceived communication from their boys
subsequent to the date given by the
war department. That seems almost
mira culous that so many errors could
, have occurred in cases of this kind"
| 1t also was worth noting. the Massa-
chusetts senator continued, that in
sending reports of casualties to fam
lilies the department simply stated the
individual had been killed or wounded
without further explanation and that
| so far as he knew the department
had no other information on the sub
J Ject.
| THAT work." he added, has very
| properly been taken up by the Red
Cross and it is testified that in the
neighborhood of 10000 letters a week
: have been sent to the families of those
killed or injured, giving the facts re-
/ latfng to the death or condition of the
injured man."
Found "Missing', Men.
! Describing Red Cross methods.
I Senator Weeks said that agency in
August located in French hospitals 200
American soldiers reported missing
! by the war department These men
/ he declared had communicated with
1 the Red Cross believing that thru ii
their relatives would learn of their
condition. but the information never
was transmitted because of an order
by the department prohibiting the
! mailing of such letters.
! Meanwhile the relatives had no
knowledge as to the location of the
, men, tho later the order was modi-
fled and the agency permitted to for
ward letters entrusted to its care. The
! theory under which the order was is
sued Senator Weeks said, was that the
department wishes absolute accuracy
/ which was desirable but he contended
1t did not follow that such informa-
/, ton would be any more accurate OF
as accurate as information obtained
/ by the Red Cross thu its individual
Representatives. Adjutant General
Harris he explained was not response
Bile for the order.
"One of the most glaring errors ir
! the lack of coordination between the
war department and the Red Gross
service" the senator said, sis found
in the fact that hospital lists were
not until the latter part of November
of this year furnished the Red Cross
altho in the possession of the war de-
partment'