Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1920-12-19

formed difficult, dangerous and delicate
duty worthy of the highest commenda-
| ton.
Clean Bill Given Marines.
| The marines virtually were given a
clean bill by the court, which declined to
recommend trial By court martial of
! Freeman Lang of Los Angeles and Roras
Williams of Birmingham, Alabama, charg
| ed by native witnesses at the Port au
| Prince hearing with the murder of Halt
| ians. Indeed, the Lang and Williams
/ cases were not mentioned, and naval Of
/ ficers explained that this meant that evil
dence against them was not deemed suf
! ficient to demand criminal prosecution.
I'm all such cases of unjustifiable
conduct by marines the court found that
| disciplinary action already had been tax
! en-.
The findings as made public were ap-
t proved by Secretary Daniels and Major
Gen. John A. .Lejeune, commandant of
! the marine corps.
Text of Courts Findings.
The text of the courts findings fol-
lows:
| "The court finds that two uniustifia-
| BILE homicides have been committed, one
each by two of the personnel of the
served in Haiti since July 2S 1915, and
| that 16 other serious acts of violence
have been perpetrated against citizens of
Haiti during the same period by indiyid-
uals of such personnel.
THE court finds further that these
| offenses were all isolated acts of ind-
vidnals and that in every case the re-
sponsible party was duly brought to
trial before q general courtmartial, con-
v1cted and sentenced
No Homicide Evidence
This jury has found no evidence of
/ the commission OF any other unjustifi-
able homicides or other serious injusti-
fable acts of oppression or of violenc
against any of the citizens of Haiti. or
unjustifiable damage or destruction of
their property caused by any of the per
! sonnet in question.
In view of the fact that only justi-
/ fable acts by the court to have been
committed are those wherein disciphn-
ery action has already been taken and
where no further proceedings could he
| had in the matter, the court has not
| deemed it necessary to report further
upon the question of responsibility.
Conclusions of Court
| Referring to paragraph two OF the
/
/ that there have been no proper grounds
| for the statement that practically indis-
| cr.minate killing of natives has been
/ going on for some time. as alleged in the
letter from Brigadier General George
Barnett, {. S. marine corps, to Colonel
John H. Russell, q. s. marine corps
Referring to the amendment to the
precept, calling for the conclusions of
the court as to the general conduct of
I IL. N. srs
Haiti since July IS, 1915, the court does
not consider that the small number Of
isolated crimes or cffenses that have been
committed by u few individuals Of the
! service during the period in question are
entitled to any considerable weight, IN
forming a conclusion as to the general
conduct of such personnel. 1t was in
evitable that some offenses would be
| committed. However, considering the
conditions of service in Haiti, it is re-
markabIe that the offenses were so few
| in number and that they all may be
chargeable to the ordinary defects of
human character, such defects as result
| in the commission of similar offenses in
| the United States and elsewhere IN :he
| best regulated communities.
Quiet After Century
''The general conduct of our troops of
|
results of that occupation.
| Now, for the first time in more than
| 100 years tranquility and security of life
and property may be said to prevail i'll
Haiti.
The Haitian people themselves well
coined the coming of our men and are
unwilling to have them depart.
THE establishment and maintenance
tranquil conditions and them Of secur-
ity of life and property all over the
republic of Haiti has been arduous and
dangerous and a thankless task That
task our marines have performed with
fidelity and great gallantry.
THE court cannot refrain from re-
cording its opinion of the reflections
which have been made upon the officers
! who have served in Haiti.
Flank and File Attitude.
saThe outstanding characteristic of
those officers, from the brigadier com
mander down, has been their sympa-
thetic attitude toward every step that
would lead to a betterment of the coun-
try and to improvement in the physical,
mental and moral conditions OF the
population.
with slender resources and made
quate administrative authority, they have
accomplished much, where anything more
than suppression of organized insuIrec-
ton seemed impossible :,
.sThe above remarks apply with par
ticular force to those officers ana en-
listed men of the marine corps VINO
have been serving as officers of the
gendarmie of the island.