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Show MILLIONS WASTED, DEPARTMENT PROBE COMMITTEE HEARS WASHINGTON'. Dec. 1 S. Automobile tires, worth more than S:;5,0(io.0eu, thrown in a pile many feet iltep and covering more than an acre of ground, were ruined through exposure to the weather at the motor transport corps base at Verneull, France, Captain Robert Clendemng, an officou. siti.the camp, today -tfcloW a house civg?W'.'-iiive..tiKiUins wjftr .cfepartmeut ovr 'thij fUp'S for mori--.tffJifittS$3' months, l1riia'i-nVMenrlpning VtaH;d; ' although tiiV'T$ o Snany canvas tilrpuulins scattered scat-tered .jy'tound the camp or being used lor ieys important purposes. Approximately 35U0 motorcycles,- after being placed in perfect repair for. use by the A. Ej F., were parked at the same camp and allowed to stand exposed to the weather for months until they became useless piles of junk, other witnesses told the committee. Testifying as to the treatment of soldiers sol-diers at Verneuil and the lank corps camp at Bourge, France, witnesses preferred pre-ferred charges of neglect and inefficiency against Colonel Harry A. liegeman, whom they styled "Kaiser Hegeman"; IJeuten-ant IJeuten-ant Colonel "Viner, who commanded the camp fit Bourge, and Captain . Benjamin H. .Smith, .-an officer in 'i fo 302nd bat-taliofci bat-taliofci tahlc corps at Bouixo-v: Cottditioris In Colonel Hgernhn's camp, especially after the armistice, -were characterised char-acterised -by the witnesses '.as "terrible and intolerable." Captain Clendcning said the barracks had no floors, seas of mud filled the space around the buildings, and only candle light was available to the men. No effort, he declared, was made to provide sidewalks, except for a "million-dollar" walk, built of sparkplugs, carbureters car-bureters and other motor parts. The material ma-terial in this walk, he testified, reached a depth of nine feet. Another witness testified that Captain Cap-tain Smith, . while in command of the hospital camp at Tobyhana, Pa., ordered or-dered three enlisted men taken to New York and carried aboard the English steamer Oriana, although all three, he said, were suffering from influenza, and the hospital at Toby nana, was-under quarantine. quar-antine. All died before the : voyage was over, trie witness said. On board the Oriana, Ori-ana, .he-., declared, 79-officers bad hfilf- of the ship reserved -to - themselves, while 900 enlisted men used tlie-remainder. Lieutenant Colonel Vin'er was charged with changing the time of sick call from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. in order to keep the men working all day "busy" halding rocks around the camp. |