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ICE THREE CENTS.THE HUES!Americans Best Fed and Had* —the Best Transportation.Official Report on Ways and Manners of the Armies—Features of Various Equipments—Traitsof the Troops.Special to The New York Timet.WASHINGTON, May 11.—A report from Capt. Thomas Franklin, Acting Commissary, comparing the methods of the allies in China, has been received by Adjt. Gen. Corbin. It is dated at Manila Jan. 30, and is as follows:As there is no doubt in my mind that the American soldier was the best fighting man of all the allies, I sball only draw comparisons (from which we can benefit, I believe.) between his needs and supplies and those of his quondam friends.In the first place, he required more and better food than they, and he got it. Thi3 fact astonished the European troops above all else. A British officer said to me:“ How often do you give your men this excellent bacon? ” “ Twenty-one times aweek, if they want it,” said I, and ha didn’t believe me. But while our food and other supplies were infinitely more generous in quantity and quality than those of the others, they were not packed with the same scrupulous care for safe carriage and quick handling. In this particular the Japanese and British especially were without rivals.ADVANTAGES OF SMALL PACKAGES.The Japanese allowed few packages to exceed 100 pounds in weight, or about three cubic feet in volume. All boxes generally, except ammunition cases, e.# were cov-I ereu with rice straw matting neatly sewed, with the same material at the corners, and tied in two directions with a rope or braid of the same. Sacks were also protected with a like outer covering. This material is light, strong, and very elastic, and protected the inner case or sack so thoroughly that their loss from broken packages wa3 practically nil. Then also the small size and moderate weight of the packages permitted of rapid handling, and, whether it was at the transport’s side, twelve miles off shore in a heavy swell, unloading from lighters to wharf or rail at Tongku or Tientsin, or from little river junks to store piles or wagon or pack trains at Tung Chow, it aroused the envy of an American Quartermaster to see the rapidity with which thesefj homogeneous packages were handled.They fitted the coolie laborer and the coolie fitted them, actually, for everything is carried on head or shoulders. Contrast this with a case of stationery, weight »JU0 pounds, put up in a thin, flimsy white pine | box, and which from rough handling and its own weakness has come to pieces in tho bottom of a junk. Think of the time and stores lost in repacking, for the coolie never fails to steal, even if he knows that the bamboo and the loss of his much-prizedqueue are the inevitable result of detection!It’s a gamble with the coolie, be he Chinaman, Japanese, or festive Filipino, and they are all gamblers. If this particular case had been put up in six 100-pound packages, they would have arrived in good order, and have been unloaded in a tithe of the time.The British (Indian Army) practice is very much the same—small, uniform packages, with a heavy jute sacking instead of the Jap rice-straw matting. One hundred and sixty pounds is the load for their j pack mules, hence (as their transportation i was nearly all pack trains) their packagesaveraged about so pounds.RUSSIANS HAD FEW STORES.The Russians did not seem to have much if any stores except a liberal supply o£ ammunition, which, as was the practice of all the powers, was put up in small, neat, strong packages of about .SO pounds.The French—that is those who came at first, viz., marine infantry, 1 believe fromTonkin—had a miscellaneous collection of stores of all shapes and sizes, which seemed to have been purchased for the occasion in various East Asian ports, judging from the marks upon them. The troops who came later had regular supplies, generally nicely packed, but not with-the same care ! as those of the British and Japs. They also had some mean packages to transport. viz., claret casks of great size and weight. It was a common occurrence for the monotony of our teamsters' life to be broken by the sight of an obstinate Chinese mule, an irate Frenchman, and an over turned Peking' cart with its load of one wine cask at the bottom of some gully. The foregoing remarks apply to the ltal-, ians anu Austrians as well.I The Germans were as bad as ourselve3; thev had their stores in big, flimsy cases, and in consequence I saw many broken at everv shipping point. As they’ had little- or no transportation except what they* slowly gathered in the country, they were put to much trouble in trying to make a four-foot box fit a three-foot cart.a rule, our subsistence stores were very well packed in strong cases of moderate weight and volume. Sacks were all double sacked and were quite strongi enough.j Quartermaster's supplies, as a rule, were very poorly put up—cases too large and much too heavy. More proportionate breakage of cases occurred in this class than in any other. Then, too, the cases should be made with reference to fitting an escortwagon. *Most all of the ordnance stores were putup in very bulky and heavy packages. Iremember* several cases of powder thatweighed 40lt; pounds net, and it took all thecoolies that could crowd around it to liftit into a wagon. A 100-pound case wouldhave been much better.Medical supplies were better put up as regards weight and volume, but many cases were of too flimsy material to withstand the hard usage of such long andcomplex transportation.■1AMERICAN RATION SUPERIORi Reverting once more to the food question,; in rwy mind there was none who had aa excellent or abundant a supply as the Americans. The Japs had rice, bread, dried fish, and tea, which they supplemented by the use of the sheep and cattle thecountrv produced. They also had American canned meats, but they were not usedfreely, and seemed to be more in the nature of a special or emergency article of theirdiet. ^ ^The British white troops had a ration similar to ours in quality and quantity, but less varied or flexible. They used tea instead of coffee. The British Indian troops had about three-quarters of a pound of att» or flour, about one pound of rice, one gill of ghee or vegetable oil, salt, and once a w’eek a pound of fresh meat, bone and all. The Sikhs only used mutton or goat, but
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New York Times
New York, New York, US
Sun, May 12, 1901
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