General Smith’s Order for Samar
GEN. JACOB H. SMITH, whose court martialing was announced last week, has admitted giving the order to his subordinates to make the island of Samar “a howling wilderness,” and to kill every one who fell into their hands over the age of ten years. This was the order upon which Major Waller was acting when he had many of the natives of Samar shot without trial. The government has left the matter of a campaign in the island of Mindanao in the hands of General Chaffee with caution to refrain from provoking a war with the inhabitants. There have been a few slight skirmishes between the inhabitants and the soldiers who are now in that island. One fort on the island has been captured, and this has influenced the occupants of other forts to display a white flag. Some of the chiefs of Mindanao have voluntarily submitted to the American forces.