Letter from General Enoch H. Crowder to Frank Lyon Polk--May 23, 1918

Transcript

EHC-AWB. May 23, 1918. Hon. Frank Lyon Polk, Counselor for the Department of State. My dear Mr. Polk: Under date April 2, 1916, the then Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root, forwarded a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, informing the Speaker that the Emperor of Japan had conferred certain military decorations upon the following officers: 1. Major General Arthur MacArthur, U.S. Army 2. Colonel Enoch H. Crowder, General Staff 3. Lieut. Col. Edward J. McClernand, 1st Cavalry 4. Major Joseph H. Kuhn, Corps of Engineers 5. Major John F. Morrison, General Staff 6. Capt. and Asst. Surgeon Charles Lynch, General Staff 7. Capt. Parker W. West, Eleventh Cavalry 8. Capt. John J. Pershing, General Staff 9. Capt. Peyton C. March, General Staff Congress did not at the time enact the legislation authorizing acceptance. There is pending before Congress a measure which will be enacted at an early date authorizing acceptance of foreign decorations, broad enough in its terms to include these. General March has told me of your personal call upon him and your offer to deliver to him the decoration referred to above. May I ask that, when this legislation is passed, you include the other officers named above along with General March. I take it that, under the precedents of the Department, the decoration authorized in the case of General MacArthur may be delivered to his widow. Very truly yours, Judge Advocate General.