The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1921-12-30
BETHEL TEST|F|ES
IN WATSON PROBE
DECLARES WARTIME DEALT
SENTENCES DO NOT REQUIRE
APPROVAL OF PRESIDENT
Ex.SERvICE MEN WITNESSES
Tales Of Many Hanging and Lynchin0
Told by Ex-SoIdiers to Committee
But Whether Victims Were Court
martiaIed 'Net Known

Washington.-Col. Walter Bethel,
General Pershing's judge advocate
general in France, recalled TUESDAY
before the senate committee lnvesu-
eating charges that American soldiers
we're illegally hanged in France, de-
rlared that in time of war courtmartial
death sentences did not require ap-
prevail of the president.
Questioned by Senator Watson,
Democrat, Georgia, who laid charges
of illegal executions before the senate,
Colonel Bethel said that after war
conditions had ended the government
directed that all sentences be forward
ed to Washington for review.
Colonel Bethel denied tnat 1t was
his inference, as suggested by Sena-
tor Watson, that executions were con-
tinuing.
Before going into testimony the
committee listened to the reading OF
scores Of kilograms to and from wit
nesses respecting their attendance.
Many of them-former service men
| tcleRThpltu llldL tuCy "CAC WAehoue
funds, and in these cases arrange
ments were made to provide transpor-
station.
The statement of William COwles of
Minneapolis that the picture at Gle
vres purporting to be of a gallows was
in reality that of a crane, was pre-
scented.
Senator Watson asked for the rec
ords in the trial and of the II Ameri-
cans executed in accordance with mill
tary law and was told that they were
ready for presentation to the commit
tee
George H. Taylor of Philadelphia,
who served overseas, told t h
committee that he saw with his own
eyes II American soldiers hanged
around Is-Sur-Tille from April to June
1918, but was unable to say whether
any of them had been convicted by
courtmartial.
One of the soldiers hanged, he said,
was tried for assault on a French girl
by French courtmarr1a1 at which one
American officer was present. Taylor
gave the name Of the soldier and said
Ae was sergeant from Detroit, Mich,
but the committee decided to omit the
name from its records.
Robert A. Harrison of Wilmington,
N. c., testified that in 1917 he witnessed
the lynching in France of a soldier.
The victim was a Mexican from Ell
Paso or Eagle Pass, Texas, who was
charged with crime against woman
and not tried.
81 was told that the man had to be
hanged to save some officer from be-
ing cashiered," Harrison declared.
Through a pair of field glasses, Har-
rison said, he saw the lynching, in
which 30 men took part.
ut was nice little necktie party"
he said. II saw the body later with
rope around the neck"
Taylor, the first witness, declared he
saw two executions at Camp Wilson.
The first was on April 1. 1919, he said,
and the entire command was ordered
to the gallows to witness 1t.
"They had double line of soldiers
at the gallows," he said, land Major
Ross was in command The man
hanged was a negro. A chaplain went
to the scaffold and prayed and then
| they hanged him."
was the man hanged tried by
eourtmartial?" Chairman Brandege
asked.
| II don't know"
Taylor said the second hanging was
similar to the first.