OCR Text |
Show i " CHURCH AS BARRACKS. 'J General Otis Is Using Churches For Military Purposes.'' 11 The war department has received the following cablegram from General Otis t regarding the military use of church 1 property in the Philippines: "1 referring to your cablegram of Sept. IS. sixteen churches in different locali-V locali-V ties have been occupied by United " States troops. Four were only par-1 par-1 tialiy occupied, anil religious services were not interfered with. Also three convents have been o cupicd. These 1 three and ten of the sixt. n churches - were formerly occupied b. insurgents. "Church property respected and protected pro-tected by our tnfcips." General Otis' message came in reply to one frent to him. at the direction of " the president after the protest of the 3 Metropolitan Tiuth socieiy. ' J: Photographs and soldier's letters 1 flatly contradict General Otis' asser-s asser-s tion that church property is respected, iind protected by our troops.." General Otis' dispatches from Manila are dis- cred'uted. The assertion that the eol-" eol-" diers can have respect for anvthins pertaining to a people they despise is ridiculous in itself, and needs no ekfb-' ekfb-' orate refutation. We all know that the war against the Filipinos is a brutaliz- ing school for American soldiers, who have, for the first time, been sent out 1 to kill people whom they have been taught to regard as no higher in the I scale of intelligence than the wild beasts of the forest. What respect can ? I a man have for a Filipino church who regards the Filipino as a savage .nd a ' nigger." The fact that the church is '' a Catholic church never impresses the non-Catholic soldier; he thinks of it as a Filipino church, and ac s accord- ingly. General Otis' very ; 0 eral and curt disclaimer won't do. R v. Joseph Stephan. the venerable hefld of the Catholic Indian bureau.' . "1 cannot understand why there is a 'V . i seeming disposition to narrow the j inquiry to the mere occupation of ' thurches. No one objects to this. AVe .-; ob.Wet to the outrages established, j J'li'y are specific, and the occupation of I churches hi proper military way has 'j nothing to do with this. What has '. j been demanded is the investigation of . j certain lax disciplinary methods to j protest against enlisted men making . sport of sacred things." |