The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1910. AN ECHO FROM THE PAST.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 65, 17 March 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1910. AN ECHO FROM THE PAST.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs rcsisJoao*, For the future ia the distance, And the good that ice can do.

The proposal submitted to the American House of Representatives to raise the wreck of "the Maine, which still lies submerged off the Cuban const, recalls one of the most tragic and momentous. episodes recorded iv modern history. Early in IS9S the Maine, an American, warship of 6652 tons, was ordered to Cuba ostensibly on a friendly visit, though in reality -to bring a contain amount of moral pressure -to bear upon the Spanish Government on behalf of the Cuban insurgents. The Maine steamed into Havana Harbour and berthed at the buoy assigned for her by the port authorities. On the night of February 15, while the captain was "writing quietly in his cabin, and the guards above were on the alert for any possible' danger, suddenly quote from an American historian—"from deep down in the bowels of the vessel there came the shock and roar of a tremendous explosion, or rather of two explosions with, a brief bat distinct interval, •instantly transforming the entire forward pari of the Maine into a shattered, wreck, •scattering debris over other vessels anchored in the bar-hour, and breaking windows and extinguishing lights along the water front of the city."' The hapless warship was speedily one blaze of flame; and in a few minutes she settled down in thirty feet of water, carrying with her scores of wounded seamen, who had been unable to escape •from below. The total loss of life amounted to 260 men, and the immediate effect of the disaster <was to precipitate waT between America and Spain. When Captain Sigsbee reported the loss of his ship to Washington, he urged that " public opinion should be suspended" until substantial proof of the cause of the explosion could be obtained. But public opinion in the United States was- hi no mood to •wait for the slow and cautious formalities of official procedure. president M<d-"jnl.ey at once set nji a Commission of Inquiry, with idariraj Sampson at its head, and for over three weeks this Commission sat at Havana and at Key West, following the work of the divers, and examining officers and men of the Maine, and a few outside witnesses who had been near the scene of the explosion at the time. But it was a significant fact that no Spanish witnesses were srrmmorred, and that Spain's suggestion for a joint inquiry was declined, and that when the Spanish Board of Inquiry published its report, American politicians and officials vied with American journalists to belittle it, and to cast doubt upon the evidence the Spanish authorities had compiled The report of the American Commission was by no means conclusive; but it absolved the officers and crew .of the Maine from any share of responsibility for the disaster, and declared that the Maine had been wrecked "by the explosion of a submarine mine," discharged by some person or persons unknown. But, unsatisfactory as this verdict was, it was quite sufficient to confirm populiar prejudice and inflame popular resentment, and there is no doubt that it had far more effeset than the Cuban insurrection in inducing the Americans to declare war against Spain. The amount of positive evidence on which the public imagination built up against Spain the monstrous charge of deliberately and treacherously destroying the warship of a friendly Power was small in the extreme. The American divers, it is true, testified that they had found a hole in the mud under the Maine's bows, and that some of her bottom plates were -bent inward and upward. But the Spanish divers absolutely contradicted these statements. One American witness spoke, of wires and pieces of plate not be&mgrrrg to the ship lying near hex in the--.mud; but in

'i ...-'""'.'"'. .■ "" ...:'.■■ .'."' :".""~ a" crowded harbour that could bardl :be termed suspicious, Witnesses on Spanish gunboat, moored only 150 yard away, stated that there was no di: turban.cc" of the wateinsuch as would c caused by. .the explosion.-: of a mine ; an this, testimony was confirmed not' onl by the captain of a', British vessi anchored near the Maine, who "saw n wave after the explosion," but also b the only member of .the Maine's crew tha actually witnessed . the explosion, ■wh admitted that though he saw a burst c flame and a mass of debris he did no notice any column di water flung -int -the air. No r dead fish vi%re found in th harbour next day, and thjs Spanish Boar of Inquiry laid stress OS this, and als on the assurance ofiered*;jby the Spams, 'Ambassador at Washington that n mines had ever been laid in Havan Harbour.' Now, -a submarine mine larg enough to destroy a "warship may cos scores or hundreds of pounds; it weigh several hundredweight,, and it is no likely to be possessed or;operated excep 'by officials or experts. In the face o ail this negative evidence, entirely im partial outsiders were prepared to admi that the explosion might have been dv to accidental causes\inside the Main itself. Thus the "Army-and Navy Jour nal" pointed out that steam, electriciy and coal liable to seli-i|nition, form : dangerous combination on "board shi_: and quoted the case of the Cincinnatti which two years before had narrowl.' escaped destruction through the spon taneous combustion of coal, which -.start ed a fire that reached the door of th magazine before it was discovered Bu as an American essayist; frankly admit; "no technical plea of jfe' possibility o accident to the Maine avail agains the overwhelming suspicion that she ha. been destroyed by'delioeaate'-and fieadis' treachery." '" '7 ■: --■■ treachery." f <g. -■■. i ''.. ■ , .-'• "j. It must be remembered that for thre years before this tragic event happens the relations bet-ween. Spain and Amexic: bad been exceedingly, precarious. j Th misgovernment and tyranny to which' th Cuban? had been subjected had shockc: the whole civilised •world, and more especially in view of the importance right]; attached by Americans to the Monro' Doctrine, public opinion throughout th United States was strongly in favour o active intervention. In the Messag which President McKinley had f orwardei to Congress, he had dwelt upon the, in jury sustained by American interest through the anarchy that, pervade* Cuba; and he regarded ths'destructioi of the Maine,- whoever was re sponsible for it, as "a paten and impressive proof of a state o things in Cuba that is intolerable. - ' Thi last inference was palpably illogica 'but the Americans were in no mood fo; logic The report of the Senate's Com rrrittee trpon Messages de claxed that, sjandingiby itself, the Maim episode was perhaps' without significance but '"considered, as it .must be, with tin events with which, reason and conimoi sense''must connest it, and with auinru: on the part of Spain so plainly apparent that no one can '"'even plausibly deny it existence," the incident pointed clearly i: one definite direction. It would have needed -a very strong Government to con trol the wave o£-public indignation am patriotic entitjusiasm that swept' «ye: America after the report of the Coaunis sion 'was published The part played "b; the 'yellow journalism" of the day ■ii inflaming public fieeHhg against Spain i indicated by the famous message sent bi W. K. Hearst to on 3of his special cor respondents, who had protested tha; there was no likelihood of war with Spaa on account of Cuba"You provide thi pictures," wired Mr. Hearst; "Fll providi the war"; and the war duly mjm about But even to this day the mystery thai enshrouded the end of the Maine ha: remained undispelled; and there is pro bably a solid foundation of truth belov the popular belief that the wreck o. the sunken warship has never been raise, because the Spaniards feared to find cvi donee of a submarine mine, and thi Americans were afraid that proofs o, some internal explosion would bring dis credit on their foreign policy, and tarnist thtf. laurels .gained in the war.