The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1920-07-16
From China.
Grant County Boy Writes Of American
Army Life In the Orient.

! usu" OOuusy wy WANOO " nanOs bOUsl
Army Life In the Orient.
The following written by Iver
Anderson. Grant county boy. who
is now with the American army in
China will be of interest to our
readers and we herewith submit it:
Editor Herald. Advance:
| Most people in the U. S. don t
know that there are American
troops stationed in China, or why
they are here. The 18th Infantry
have been stationed in China since
1912. and of course there has al
ways been Marines here since the
Boxer uprising in 1900 and here is
the reason for U. S. troops being
here at present.
United States troops are station
ed in China pursuant to provisions
of the Protocol of 1901. to which
the U. S. and China were parties,
authorizing certain foreign powers
to maintain troops in the latter
country for the purpose Of insuring
the maintenance Of the railway be-
tween Peking and the sea. To each
Of certain powers section of this
railway has been allotted, and for
such section that power is respons-
ibIe for the continuous operation of
the railway. As to some of the
powers the original stipulations
have been changed but in the case
of the U. S. they are as originally
given.
The U. S. troops are under the
orders of the American Minister at
Peking and are in China solely for
the purpose of seeing that the rail.
way between Peking and the sea is
kept open. 1t is no concern of
ours who uses the railway, or how;
it is no matter of ours whether
railways or buildings are used by
government or revolutionary forces,
or by another foreign power; the
telegraph and telephone lines may
be used by anyone and for any pur-
pose. In our section we are to see
only that neither the railway or
properties appertaining to the op-
Grafton ordered are destroyed or
disabled.
Our mission is given in the mes
sage from the Minister to protect
the section of the railway assigned
to the U. S. insuring it's continu-
Gus and uninterrupted operation,
and not interfering in the use of it
by others, as long as they in no
way attempt the destruction Of
bridges, tracks, telegraph lines, etc.
The section assigned to the u. S.,
is about Is miles long and for the
protection of this section there is
one regiment OF Infantry, small de-
tachments of @. M. Corps, Motor
Transport Corps, Medical Corps and
Signal Corps. All of this force ex.
cept two companies at are Tientsin,
(the most important point of one
section.) This town is about half
way between the extremities of our
section and is the location Of exten.
sive yards and car shops.
Tientsin is situated on a fiat
alluvial plain, intersected by rivers,
canals and dyked roads. It consists
Of dense native city surrounded
ny scattered suburbs, those to the
south being foreign concessions oc-
cupied by consulates. garrisons and
dwellings,. The native population
is nearly 100000.
The Pei-ho. river flows through
the city and is navigable to streams
from 10 to IL feet of draft and the
city is about 30 miles from the.sea
The country is very fiat and in
places swampy. All available
ground is under Gu walton. The
soil is clay loan and is very
sticky and muddy when wet. there
are no trees except a few sbout the
villages and along the rivers and
canals, mostly willows of the home
variety. The principal crop IS,
kaoling, "a sort of cane but with
out much juice) used principally
for fael and building purposes, and
there are also many truck gardens
in which all kinds Of vegetables
grown in our own home gardens
are to be found and haye seen
milIet. beans. peanuts, Irish and
sweet po tatoes growing everywhere
and it is irrigated solely by man
power. the cheapest power here,
they even saw their lumber by
hand.