AMERICA AND SPAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11557, 19 April 1898, Page 5

AMERICA AND SPAIN.

THE PRESIDENT'S POSITION. BOSTON’S PATEIOTIC VOTE. ATTACK ON A CONSULATE. THE SENATE~ZnFTHE HOUSE. A DEADLOCK BEARED, THE CONTEOL OP SAMOA. United Press Association— By Electric Copyright. WASHINGTON, April 17. The'discussion in the Senate turned upon the advisability of recognising the independence of Cuba. This having been done, instructions ’were given to President M’Kinley to u»e force. As one House directs the employment of extreme measure*, and the other merely gives authority, the President will resort to force if necessary. A conference betuwen both Chambers is expected. The Boston Legislature has voted half a million dollars for the assistance of the militia in Massachusetts. The vote was granted in half an hour. The Senate has resolved that the United States is not to exercise sovereignty of control, excepting for purposes of pacification, which, vrhen accomplished, will leave Cuba to the control of the people. The House of Eepreseni*tives-will probably resist recognition of the Cuban Eehel Government. A deadlock between the two Houses is feared. Received. April 19, 15.55 a.m. April ..18. The Senate’s recognition of a Cuban Republic is the outcome of - a Democratic, Populist, Siiverite and Eadical pro-Cuban coalition to em* harass President M'Kinley. The American Government has chartered the steamers St Paul, St Louis, City of Paris, and Oityof New York for use as cruisers. It is reported that Great Britain will treat coal as contraband if shipped to the West Indies. MADRID, April 17. At Malaga, a seaport town near Gibraltar, a mob attacked the American Consulate and smashed the escutcheon over the building. April 18. Feeling in the city deeply resents the American Senate’s action regarding the recognition of a Cuban Republic as an additional proof of annexation designs, especially since it was adopted on the day the Havana delegates started to confer with the insurgents. NEW YORK, April 18. The Cuban Colonial Cabinet has offered unconditional help, and expresses readiness to make the greatest sacrifices to maintain sovereignty mth autonomy. BERLIN, April 18. Some German papers imply thatae both America’s and Great Britain’s hands are so full now, it is a good time to ensure exclusive German sovereignty in Samoa. THE STATE OF CUBA i; i THE IMPRESSIONS OF A VISITOR. A representative of the “Lyttelton Times ” yesterday obtained much interesting ir formation relative to the position in Cuba from an American gentleman who spent many years in Cuba, Mexico and Central and South America, and who is familiar with the Span-ish-American peoples, their, language, manners and customs, and who is in communication with friends in Cuba, through the “ Underground Railway ” worked by the Patriot Cuban junta in New York. It may interest philatelists, by the way, to know that this junta has issued postage stamps, which are sold in New York for affixing to letters to be sent to that part of the island under control of the insurgents. The gentleman in question, while in New Yolk, lodged for a considerable time in 1896 with a family of Cuban refugees, people of culture and refinement and formerly of wealth, who, like many of their compatriots, were forced to eke out a living by selling their jewels, keeping boarders, and teaching Spanish and French. THE CUBAN INSURGENTS. At their house he met hundreds of refuges Cuban patriots, splendid fellows, well-edu-cated, nearly all of them graduates of Yale or Harvard Colleges, and all of them reduced from affluence to poverty by the war. Many had been, or afterwards became, officers in the insurgent army, and these, he states, were men of high birth; several of them descended from the best families of Old Spain. Among them was General Garcia, whose has been prominently before the public ol late, and who is a cultured and highly-edu-cated gentleman. Maceo, the brilliant leadei whose death was such a fearful blow to the patriot cause, was also a polished and cultured man, the son of a Cuban of old family, his mother being a negress, with a strong infusion of Carib blood in her veins. The newspaper stories about Maceo having served as a stable lad at West Point trad in othei romantic ways acquired a knowledge of military matters, are, it seems, fabrications. The Cuban leader was educated in France and England, and lived for some years in America, He was a man of magnificent physique, nobk bearing and of most daring courage. It is, our informant remarked, a great mistake to suppose that the insurgent army is mainly composed of people of colour. Many, even of the rank and file, are of good Spanish blood, and among the officers are several American and European - trained military men. SPANISH ATROCITIES. As a sample of the information sent via the “underground railway” to Cuban refugees, and an illustration of Spanish methods of dealing with “ disaffected ” districts, the gentleman interviewed gave an extract from a letter received by one of the ladies in the house where he stayed in New York. He prefaced it with the remark that whenthe recipients wished him to read such letters they handed them to him in silence, and left the room. This extract, translated, ran:—“My dear Louisa, —The day before yesterday tlm.Spanish troops called at the plantation or- . On their learning from the negroes that the husband and son had joined the insurgents, the negroes were all rounded in, and the growing crops of erne and tobacco destroyed. The ladies were then called out by the officer in command, and questioned as to the whereabouts of their male folk. On their refusal to give particulars, they were stripped naked and caused to dance before the Spanish soldiers by being whipped by the negroes. After they had l fainted from exhaustion they were given over to the soldiers to do as they pleased with. Can you wonder then that our lady friends, whose names I dare not mention, are to-day heading the Cuban troops, veritable blood-thirsty Amazons T A good many of the leaders of the insurgent army, remarked the reciter, grimly, to-day are the wives, sisters and daughters of Cuban patriots. About three-fourths of the island, the whole of the middle and eastern portions,

I; have been absolutely devastated; nothing is ?/. growing there in the way of cultivated crops aave in a few patches near the ports, which the Spaniards hold. Fully 200,000 people are starving in .the regions laid waste. The i| j i western province,. Vuelta Abago, famous for (>i its' tobacco, is in the, hands, of the in- ‘ riirgerits'. Much of it consists of mountains '§l , , and fertile hills guarded by swamps, which breed‘’ the yellow 1 fever, so deadly to the Spanish troops, but harmless to the native Cubahjs.O ; Phl.the' hills the '■ patriots grow grain and other supplies, protected by the pestiferous swamps, the few passages , though which'can he easily held by mere , • handfuls.of rrien. • *- UNITED STATES INTERVENTION. ; ’ In relation to the attitude of the United Vi. States towards the Cuban question, the gentleman interviewed, who is, by the way, actmsjn of ‘Senator! Bayard, ■ Minister at the Court of St James,' itfongly urged that it is against the tradi- „ tional policy of the United States to acquire jutside territory.. Should, , therefore, the ‘States succeed in expelling the Spaniards ?■' from Cuba, , that island, together with the neighbouring one of Puerto Rico would, he ... ‘ said, be formed into an independent Bepub-' He. 1 ‘A government would probably liave to -■ be Organised l and controlled by America un- ’■ til. the: country , was in such a condition of settled peace that elections could be. held, when ,it would be handed over to its own people. y, ’ i A BIT OF SECRET HISTORY, i,' - Our American friend fully expects to see #1; Great Britain at America’s side in the event of ,thp latter's action in Cuba leading to •; > “ European complications,” and states, as a hit of secret, but authentic history, that in 'lbs3 .President Cleveland' intimated to Lord. Salisbury his intention of intervening on behalf.of .the Cubans, but that the British Premier requested him to hold his hand just then, , as his interference would precipitate a European war, for which England was not ready.'- British dockyards and arsenals have been very active since then, and it would Mem that, the time has arrived when Great Britain"; is'ready. The incident, the narrator pointed, out, utterly belies the idea of antagonism 1 ' between * the two * great Anglojlaxon nations, and shows plainly the intimate, 4onßecti on between'their. Governments. Great'Britain and America would, he > believes* have the support of Japan, which .las' an, eye on the Philippihes. He confcideK'tbitPtei diifcdhie of the struggle Would be the destruction of the colonial power of Spain,'} the: erection .of her West Indian pos- ’ ■ sessions, into, a,Republic under the protection i of the United States, and the acquisition of the Canary and Cape Verde Islands by Great Britain,, who,, would probably partition the I jPhilippine Islands with Japan. To show that . the friendly feeling between Great 'Britain and the United States is not confined to -the. Governments, he said that his latest New York letters brought the news that in many places of amusement “ God Save the Queen?’ Was played at the close, of the per- ■; formances, while the audiences rose and * ■ometimes cheered. ' ' y THE CHANCES OF WAR. , ' This gentleman considers it foolish to suppose that seventy-five million people, mostly Anglo-Saxons, with unlimited resources, will be'beaten by eighteen million Spaniards. It is true, he says,’ that the Spaniards have the more' ships, but the Americans have, he contends, the, better ships, and the better men. ' ‘Their four, now battle ships are, he says, eqtial, to'anything afloat, and their fleet has some peculiar features which should give it an'advantage. It has the- dynamite thrower Vesuvius, repurchased from Brazil, the ram ' Kataidin, a vessel whose mission is to accompany the squadron for the sole purpose of ramming the ships of the enemy, and a - submarine torpedo boat, capable of remaining under water for twelve hours, with only the top of an air-pipe, showing.' He considers that the damage the Spaniards could do on; the American coasts would be .com- '] paratively trifling. As to the army, though the regular forces of the United States consist ‘hut-of 25,000 men, it is America’s boast that she can put a million men in the field in a month., The State militia organisations are all of-them, it-appears, respectable, and some, of them, excellent, and there are more trained officers in the States than might be •supposed from the small size of the regular army, for many young men are educated at thj’WeSti Point Military Academy who never enter the army, but find employment in connection with the militia.