PRESIDENT CLEVELAND ON THE CUBAN QUESTION.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 1170, 9 December 1896, Page 5

PRESIDENT CLEVELAND ON THE CUBAN QUESTION.

HE CANNOT RECOGNISE THE INSURGENTS. [press association.] Washington, 7th December. President Cleveland, in a message to Congress, says it is impossible to recognise the Cuban insurgents. If Spain offered to grant a satisfactory form of autonomy, and the Cubans accepted it, the United States would furnish a guarantee for its execution. THE QUESTION OF PURCHASE OF THE ISLAND. (Received December 9, 10.20 a.m.) Washington, Bth December. President Cleveland states that the suggestion that the United States should purchase Cuba is worth consideration if Spain is willing to sell. It is, he says, impossible that America's expectant attitude can be maintained indefinitely, and higher duties than obligation to Spain may compel her to intervene. Mr. Olney, Secretary of State, in a separate report to Congress, declares that the Cubans at present have not founded an effective system of local government. He warns Spain that a decided change in policy by the United States is imminent. The New York correspondent of The Times, writing from Washington on 21st October, telegraphs that the Government then contemplated " energetic action " to bring the never-ending conflict in Cuba to a close. Apparently it proposed to buy the island by paying off or assuming its debt, and if that proposal was rejected would recognise the independence of Cuba. This statement (observes a leading contemporary) must have been made with the knowledge of the White House, and is antecedentedly probable. There is a strong feeling of sympathy with the Cubans throughout the Uuion, and a horror of General Wevler, akin in kind, though not in justice, to British horror of the Sultan, and both are accentuated by dislike of the Spaniards, which in the South- Western and Pacific States* is universal. There is an idea, too, that Cuban trade might be most valuable to the Statos, A war, therefore, would be very popular, and it is by no means certain that Spain would shrink from one. Her Government is pressed almost beyond bearing by financial difficulty and by the popular discontent at its ill-success, and by I fear that this discontent may give the Carlists their opportunity. Many statesmen in Madrid are inclined to calculate that war would save the honour of Spain, would relieve her of the burden of a ruined colony, and would enable tho Treasury to liquidate its obligations without disgrace. Many preparations have been made for the contihgency, and there are able Spaniards who believe that although they cannot win in the end, the war will not be discreditable to their great history.