Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-01-01
GEN. SMEDLEY BUTLER TO END
80 YEARS SERVICE IN JULY
Will Be Eligible for Retire
ment From Marines at
Age of AZ.
Enlisted and Became Lieu.
tenant When He Was
But II.

| One Of Americas most picturesque
soldiers, Brig. Gen. Smedley ID. Butler
of the Marine Corps, will finish 80
years service by early July Of this
year and may apply for retirement at
! the remarkably young age of Al.
1t was at the age of II, during the
Spanish American War; that Cen But
Ter entered the service. Now he is
| commanding the Marines in China.
| significantly enough, nearly 30 years
after his enlistment, for he went out
to China in 1899 in the Boxer uprising
and had gallant part in the relief of
Picking by the allied expeditionary
| forces.
Served in Many Places.
The American flag hardly flies or
goes anywhere that Gen. Butler has
not served-Cuba, the Philippines,
Mexico. Honduras. Haiti. Santo Do
mingo, Panama. France, China and
other places. In the World War he
reached the grade of brigadier general.
One of his outstanding tasks In France
was in commanding Camp Brest,
where he found deplorable conditions
for the American troops and earned
| the special commentator OF Gen.
| Pershing by his handling Of the stu
alton.
In 1923 he became better known to
most Americans by taking charge of
the Police Department of Philadel-
phia in civic move to improve the
city. For nearly two years he
wrestled with politics and finally was
| forced out. but the good work he did
| in Philadelphia was given striking
recognition recently by the placing in
1 I,,;Ix t,,
Washington of n memorial. on which
| is n relief portrait of Cen Butler and
| this inscription: "I1e enforced the law
| impartially. He defended 1t coura-
geously. He proved incorruptible."
Assigned to San Diego.
| Gen. Butler left his Philadelphia
post December %. 1925. and was well
coined back in the Marine Corps. He
was assigned to the important station
ut San Diego and early in 1927. when
the civil war in China became acute.
| making protective measures for Amer
| :can citizens necessary, Gen. Butler
was sent 10 shanghai He arrived on
March 81. just at the time the Nan
king outrage was stirring America
| and Europe. Chinese soldiers had at
tackled several scores of foreigners in
| NdnkiiiN. nut Hdu p1Sti ltphfSGA ny n
| naval bomhardment
There were about 1900 Marines In
| Shanghai before his arrival and the
number soon was augmented To close
| to 5000. including the 500 Marines on
| guard at the United States legation in
Picking Most of these remain In
China. the largest concentration being
at Tientsin. The civil war last May
and June moved northward. the cap
ture of Picking and Tientsin being the
objective Of the southern Nationalist.
hence the Marines were shifted large
~ to Tientsin in the protective policy
outlined by Washington. AS the civil
war still may be most acute In the
North the Marines remain concen-
| trated there. with 1900 to 1900 left
| in Shanghai.
So far In China there has been no
| exciting service for the Marines They
had no aggressive aims and actual
| protective fighting has dcvolved more
| upon units OF the Navy along the
Yangtze River. or. as in December. at
| Canton. when that city was going
| through an upheaval. The chance of
China settling down TO an extent that