White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-06-07
18th u. S. INFANTRY
ON DUTY IN CHINA
Regiment Has Been on Job
for Seventeen Years.

Tlentsin.-American marines who
came to Tientsin about eighteen
months ago 5000 strong have all
sailed away. Now that they are gone,
are Americans and American interests
In Tientsin and in north China with
out armed protection? Far from It.
-"Oh, gunboat or so near Tientsin
and the American Legation guard at
Peking-they are on the job" is the
reply many Americans might give to
an inquiry on the subject.
American gunboats or cruisers are
not permanently stationed near Tien-
tsfn, and the legation guard at Peking
is the personal guard of the American
minister. But Americans and their
interests in Tientsin and in north
China are amply guarded. Two bat
talions of the Fifteenth infantry, U. S.
A., 300 strong, stay in Tientsin year
in and year out. Chinese crises come
and go, Chinese governments rise and
fall, Tientsin and Picking are captured
and held by first one action and then
by another; the American marines ar
rive and depart-but the Fifteenth in
fantry is always on the job.
| A Pleasant Billet.
The presence of these American SOL
diers in China is sanctioned under the
Boxer protocol of 1901, the treaty
signed by China after the Boxer horde
besieged the Picking legation quarter
in the summer Of 1900.
From 1901 until 1912 no American
forces were maintained at Tientsin,
but for nearly seventeen years, or
since the civil war began, two bat
talions of the Fifteenth have been sta
toned here, the other battalion be-
ing in the Philippine islands.
At present the American army per-
sonnet in Tientsin totals Sc officers
and $50 men. Army transports arrive
three times a year with requirements
for officers and men whose tour Of
duty here or terms Of enlistment are
about to expire.
In general officers remain at Tien.
tsin three years and enlisted men
about the same period. The men for
the ranks are sent out when they are
mostly fresh recruits and leave in time
to be discharged in the United States
when their four-year terms expire. So
pleasant is army life at the Tientsin
post that there are many re-enlist-
ments.
The United States now assigns
high general officer in Tientsin in adj
dition to the active commander Of the
Fifteenth, and at present Brig. Gen.
j. G. Cashier fills this post. Col.
Isaac Newell is commander of the Eff
teenth regiment. General Cashier
came to Tientsin in May, 1926, and
will normally be transferred soon. AS
yet his successor has not been an
nounced.
One of the cardinal principles of the
Tientsin post is to cultivate good will
policy General Cashier about twenty
months ago inaugurated course OF
compulsory study of the Chinese Ian
guage. Officers and men alike must
begin to study Chinese as soon as
they arrive in Tientsin. 1t is the gen.
erals theory, which is supported by
records of the last year and half,
that chances for Misunderstanding be-
tween the soldiers and the Chinese
are greatly reduced If the Americans
have an understanding of the Ian
guage.
Comfortable Quarters.
The forces of the American army in
China are comfortably quartered in a
walled compound in the former Ger
man concession in Tientsin, in build
ings built for the German forces.
When China Joined the allies in the
World war Germany lost all her
Boxer protocol and other treaty rights
in this country.
The barracks property is Chinese
owned and is in territory now under
the administration of the Chinese au-
thorities. The activities of the post
have so expanded that the original
compound has become too small, and
various departments, such as stables
wagon yard, ice plant, and post eX-
changes, have overlooked to adjacent
land-also Chinese owned and occu-
pied under rental agreements:
Naturally the problem of keeping
$50 young men occupied, amused. and
out Of trouble is no light matter, par
ticularly in port city in the Far
East, where liquor is cheap and where
there are relatively few desirable
white civilian associates to be found
by the men. But this phase has been
so handled that little trouble Is ex-
perienced.
I The Fifteenth infantry, during near
ly seventeen years in China, has
'never had to fire a shot" except In
range practice. The regiments ranges
are at Chingwantao, harbor north
east of Tientsin, where a summer
camp is maintained. These ranges
have 80 targets. Every man Of the
command spends minimum of two
months at the camp, both for marks
manship training and for healthful
change from the humid heat of Tien-
tsin.