HOSPITAL ISSUES.

The supplies purchased and issued from stock on hand during the fiscal year for enlisted men in hospital too sick to use the army ration, amounted in value to $578,501.49.

Issues of articles differing from those of the ration to enlisted men in camp during periods of recovery from low conditions of health consequent upon service in unhealthy regions or in debilitating climates aggregated in value $20,179.19.

Statement of the value of subsistence supplies issued to Philippine convicts and destitutes during the fiscal year 1901, and of the amount of same reported as collected from public civil funds of the Philippine Islands by Col. C. A. Woodruff, A. C. G., chief commissary, Division of the Philippines.

Reimbursements from public civil funds of the Philippine Islands for issues to native scouts in February, 1901, amounting to $656.92, were also made through Capt. M. S. Murray, commissary, in June, 1901.

CUBAN SCHOOL TEACHERS.

The supplies issued for Cuban school-teachers were the subject of remark in annual report of previous year. The entire cost of their subsistence has now been refunded the United States, amounting to $12,405.77.

SALES OF SUBSISTENCE STORES.

The amounts received from sales of subsistence stores during the fiscal year are classifiable as follows:

Sales on credit to officers of both the Regular and Volunteer Army in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, as shown by the accounts of that year thus far received, amount to $29,345.16, and the sums thus far reported as collected through the Pay Department and otherwise settled amount to $18,946.24, leaving the sum of $10,398.92 yet to be collected.

The sales on credit to enlisted men of both the Regular and Volunteer Army amount to $43,082.42; the collections by the Pay Department on muster and pay rolls and on final statements, on account of credit sales, amount to $30,784.62, leaving still to be collected $12,297.80.

Sales on credit to enlisted men of both the Regular and Volunteer Army during the previous fiscal year, not heretofore reported by reason of delay in receipt of accounts, amount to $3,644.98, and the collections from same sources amount to $4,415.61, leaving still to be collected on account of credit sales in that year $4,113.53.

LOSSES OF STORES AND PROPERTY.

The value of the supplies lost by accident, by wastage in transportation, while in stores, etc., during the year, for which no one was held responsible, as shown by the returns for that year thus far examined, was $93,312.07. Like losses which occurred during the preceding fiscal year, but which were not included in the annual report of that year, amounted to $13,264.64. Of above sum of $93,312.07, the losses by fire amounted to $4,773.21; by flood and storm, $1,940.64; by death of cattle, $5,291.85; by theft, $6,777.09; by capture, $100.48; at sea, $14,139,09; lost and thrown overboard, $938.18; disappeared in China, $392.43. In above sum of $1.940.64, the value of the property lost by storm and flood at Galveston, Tex., September 8, 1900, $285.17, is included.

Supplies lost during the year, the responsibility for which was fixed, amounted to $20,715.47, of which $9,226.28 has been reported as collected, leaving still to be collected $11,489.19.

SALES OF CONDEMNED STORES AND PROPERTY.

From the returns thus far received and examined the stores condemned and sold in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1901, are shown to have been as follows:

From sales of condemned property there was realized the sum of $814.41.

The sum of the value of stores and property lost from inevitable causes and condemned, as above set forth, was $494,842.85, which was about 3 per cent of the appropriation for the fiscal year 1901.

Statement of the value of subsistence stores issued to marines, etc., and transferred in bulk to officers of the Marine Corps for issue to marines and of amounts collected on account of same.

Claims have been made on the Navy Department for such of the above sums as are due on account of supplies furnished and money expended for savings of marines.

In the preparations for the sending of a relief expedition into China in July, 1900, this office was furnished by the Adjutant-General with information gathered from various sources regarding the location and resources of the region which was to become the theater of operations in that country, and this information was duly furnished to the officers of the Subsistence Department who were to be directly engaged in the supervision and direction of the subsistence affairs of the expedition. Maj. H. J. Gallagher, who had been designated as the chief commissary of the expedition, wrote to the Commissary-General from San Francisco as follows on July 16, 1900:

I wired you to-day requesting commissary, Manila, be directed to send cargo fresh meat to Taku without delay. This is the short cut to getting meat to where it is needed. If our forces do not exceed 12,000 this will supply them for a good period. By the time it is exhausted we should be able to procure from the country. If it is not all required at Taku it can be later on sent to Manila. The force I am taking, that is the three commissary sergeants and the clerks authorized in telegram, should be sufficient to conduct affairs systematically and efficiently. Regarding laborers I wish to say I believe it would be well to take 12 laborers from this country. I think they can be had for $60 per month and their ration. If it is to be a war with the Chinese we can not get them as laborers if they were wanted. To call on the troops for details is the other alternative. It has two objections; it weakens the force of troops, and it furnishes indifferent labor. I would have no soldiers about the depot excepting a guard. If this meets your approval please telegraph and I will set about getting the men. The supplying of our troops there will be in the face of the whole world. There should be no hitch. I notice the press reports a scarcity of small craft to get men ashore; this means a scarcity for other purposes. This does not properly belong to the Subsistence Department, and may be none of my business, but in view of an experience that befell us before in this matter I think it is my duty to mention it.

It being found possible to provide the troops with fresh meat in the country, the refrigerator ship which was sent up from Manila with a cargo of meat was returned to that port in October following. In regard to other subsistence stores drawn from that source, Major Gallagher on October 29 reported as follows from Tientsin, China:

All my requisitions on Manila have been filled fairly well--as well, I am sure, as it was possible for them to be filled.

Capt. W. H. Bean, commissary, reported from Tongku on October 18 that

it has been said that the Americans in China have fewer men and more supplies than any other nation here.

Major Gallagher also called attention to a matter which required rectification. Said he:

Packages containing subsistence supplies should be marked with the contents, instead of with pictures of proprietors, factories where made, gold, silver, and brass medals awarded.

A circular was subsequently issued from this office to all purchasing officers of the Subsistence Department, as follows:

Complaints have been received at this office to the effect that packages containing subsistence stores are not so marked as to show their contents, and that in many instances the various firms cover the boxes with advertisements, etc., and it is impossible to obtain any information concerning the contents. Purchasing commissaries will please take such steps as to insure the packages being so marked as to show the contents, the proper shipping marks, the names of the purchasing officer and contractor, and the date of purchase, and that all superfluous marks be omitted from the packages.

The following instructions were also issued to all subsistence officers on February 18, 1901:

In addition to the marks, designations, etc., heretofore placed on packages shipped by the Subsistence Department there will be stenciled on both ends of all packages, boxes, etc., hereafter the distinctive symbol of the Subsistence Department, viz: The crescent, of size 3 inches high and 2 inches wide, made of a contrasting color, and of pattern similar to design herewith.

In reply to a newspaper statement that on the march to Pekin the Quartermaster's Department failed to furnish the necessary transportation, and the troops were loaded down with baggage in excess of their carrying capacity, Capt. Frank W. Ramsay, quartermaster, Ninth Infantry, and late acting chief quartermaster in the field and temporarily acting as chief commissary, China relief expedition, reported to the Adjutant-General of the Army as follows on December 27, 1900: The men carried on their persons rifle, cartridge-belt with 100 rounds of ammunition, canteen, haversack with but one day's rations, tin cups, and a small roll across the shoulders. Owing to excessive heat many discarded this roll before the march was finished. In the advance on Pekin pack trains immediately followed the troops with ammunition. The wagon train was always close enough to furnish an extra supply. Wagons carried the rations, which were issued every day; also engineer material, tools, and hospital stores. Coolies carried company cooking utensils and most of the officers' baggage, etc. Pack and cart trains, improvised with native animals, supplemented the whole, carrying forage and small rolls for officers who were not provided with coolies.

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The supplies carried by the trains were often replenished from the fleet of junks, and the trains camped with the troops every night except one, when, through a misunderstanding, they went a mile or two beyond the camping place of the troops. Each organization was ordered to start with one day's rations in haversacks, four days' on wagons, and ten days' on the junks, a total of fifteen days' rations. These rations should have consisted of the staple components, i. e., bread, meat, coffee, sugar, salt and pepper, and some of the other components. At the camp just south of Hoshiwu I discovered for the first time that the hard-bread ration was incomplete. This was due to the fact that the Fourteenth Infantry brought only 5,000 rations of hard bread on the junks instead of 10,000 rations of this component, which should have completed the staple ration. I reported the facts to the commanding general. To insure uniformity I was directed to combine all rations. From that time, August 8 to August 19, the issue to the whole command of that one component was reduced, at first to 80 per cent and afterwards, for a few days, to 70 per cent.

There was no material reduction in the other staple components of the ration at any time, and, while it was not always possible to issue one kind of meat, bacon, corned beef, and a small percentage of salmon made up the total of this component.

Within my experience troops have always been required to carry heavier packs than on the way to Pekin, and on account of the fertility of the soil they never lived better while on active campaign in a hostile country.

The only complaint regarding rations came to me as follows: About September 2 General Chaffee directed me to investigate a complaint made by Colonel Daggett that his troops were receiving not more than 80 per cent of any component of the ration. I met Colonel Daggett a few moments later. He referred me to Captain Martin, of his regiment, as the authority for the report. I immediately made personal investigation and inquiries of the depot commissary, Lieutenant Munson, and the acting commissary, Fourteenth Infantry, Captain Reynolds, but failed to find any foundation for the complaint. I visited Captain Martin, who called up his com