Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1899 — TROOPS TO GO TO MANILA. [ARTICLE]

TROOPS TO GO TO MANILA.

Fourteen Thousand Regulars for Otis Volunteers to Come Home. Fourteen thousand regulars are to be sent to re-enforce Gen. Otis at Manila as soon as the necessary marine transportation can be provided. It is not expected that the bulk of the large body of re-en-forcements can reach Manila until the end of the rainy season, which has just begun, but they will closely follow the departure of the volunteers from the Philippines. With the regular troops already ordered and on the way to Manila, Otis will have an effective force of 21,729 men, in addition to the recruits being sent every few days for the regiments already in the Philippines. This force is to be raised to 85,000 men by the time aggressive operations can be pressed in the early autumn. The volunteers to be returned to this country from Manila humber 12,000, so the determination to send 14,000 ablebodied regulars to take their places is calculated to show the rebel leaders that the United States is terribly in earnest about meeting its responsibilities for preserving order and commanding respect through the archipelago. It is stated that the army in the Philippines will be increased to 35,000 men, whether the rebels abandon the field or not If Aguinaldo gives up his hopeless fight as, a result of the negotiations now in progress between his followers and the President’s commissioners, 35,000 men are deemed the right number to garrison the forts in the outlying islands and establish lawful government in them.