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Show BREST HP IT GIVEPiiEFENSE ! Sensational Reports of Con-; Con-; ditions Declared Unwar- ranted by Chaplain. i , Graphic Description of Terrors Ter-rors Wrought by Influenza Supplied by Clergyman. 1 WASHINGTON", March 2. Denial of i rminy reports of -bitd ronditlunn at the ' iirmy d.;l;uUar km ramp at Urc.-t, France, i couple i with a Kntphic description of the 1 tcn ih.: days when, dfpll o the ravages of the influenza rpldi-nilc, American troops were hr-lni? rushed to Franco to hfrlp hurl hack the irmn army, ia contained con-tained In a lctt-ir from Chaplain V. B. A yi-VH of the navy, who served ciyht months at Brent. : T'luiplrtin A yets, who hits Jut returned from France, hay a Uie.it has proved a luialthful c-irnp, in uplte of the mud and almost continuous rains experienced dur-fiiR dur-fiiR 'he winter months), and that there Una been no initial epidemic there. Approximately 2000 aoldlers died there from Influenza, hut the chaplain says that "In practically all of theso cases men were brought atdioro with the dia-eiiKA dia-eiiKA f rom trannporta." "Smitio folks ticem to think that It is terrible beeaitsu our hoy a are living in tenlH on the hills around r'ontenazen,' tho chapIain'H letter sjiid, "yet those of uh who have hud their woll-bcins in mind have thanked God that the boys had tho tenia Instead of the wooden barracks. bar-racks. Influenza in a. crowd disease. Wo waved the lives of thousands of boys by getting them into tho tents. Slatements Called Untrue. In one of our American newspapers recently I saw a Wtt.er attack on Ker-baun Ker-baun hospital in an alleged interview by a Hud Cross worker. Many of her statements state-ments were utterly inaccurate. "After accuHlng tho surgeons of neglect, neg-lect, heart lesancss and indifference, this Jtrd Cross worker, who is not a nurse, asserts that our dead were loaded onto trucks, carried out into the country and buried without ceremony, without religious re-ligious service of 'any kind, and were dumped into the ground and their coffins cof-fins tukuu back to the hospital to be used again. m "Tills is one thing I happen to know something about. At tho first, there was no chaplain at Kerbaun. Naturally, I offered to help. "It is true that bodies were placed on trucks, the only available means Df transportation, and at the time when the ; influenza raged most terribly there was not a coffin to be had in that whole district, nor the lumber to build them of. Burial WithoutCaskets. "It became finally necessary for the army to face the prospect of burials without caskeHs. "The army had purchased a field outside out-side of Brest ut Lombezelec, where perhaps per-haps a thousand of our boys lie. Two hundred and fifty negroes were detailed to dig graves. "The army chaplain was himself sick, i I took his place and was in the cemetery j all that day, all night and all the next day. "When the graves were dug the negroes ne-groes lifted the caskets to their shoulders ji ml marched 10 the individual graves. Then, with hats off, beside each grave two negroes stood at attention, while friendfc and fellow officers stood near, as the funeral services were conducted. Critics Are Condemned. "When night came the 'caskets were exhausted and by the light of a torch I st od at thIr graves as I looked down at their shrouded figures and asked God's blessing upon their souls. Before the day came I hnd said prayers over, approximately, ap-proximately, throe hundred thus, and I r.'tn vouch that every man had what blessing and fui'h can best'iw. "I have written a Uiousand letters to parents or wiv,-s, whose hoys died undi-r these conditions, and I do nut l.ke to see war critics whose mission and value I have not been quite able to -determine destroying what ir.eaifi.-r comfort our honest hon-est and sincere assurance can bring. |
