THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1896.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10130, 13 May 1896, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1896.

The relations between the United States of America and Spain have suddenly become so strained that they are likely for a time to absorb the public attention, which lias for a number of

months been vacillating between one ; point and another of the earth's surface, in expectation of an outbreak of hostilities. The latest cable news tells us that the Government of the United States has ordered the mobilisation of the army in Florida in anticipation of & possible descent on the " Queen of the Antilles." Whether this is bravado, or with the actual intention of hostilities pending certain contingencies, remains to be seen. The United States has unfortunately a penchant for sensational, demonstrations in lieu of the more orderly procedure of diplomacy which is usual among the older nations; and this order to prepare nny be only a movement to aocentuate the demand in j what is assumed to be an ultimatum to the Spanish Government in relation to some condemned American citizens at present in the hands of the Spanish forces in Cuba. The situation, however, appears to bo the outcome of antecedent proceedings in relation to Cuba, which would seem to show ,a growing feeling among the people, and in the Congress of the United States, in favour of the Cuban insurgents. The immediate cause of the present sudden development of strained relations, is the sentence

passed by court-martial at Havannah on the crew of an American vessel seized by a Spanish guuboat for carrying arms to Cuba, three of the crew being American citizens, President Cleveland h;\d cabled to the Government at Madrid that if the men are executed without a civil trial, it will be

regarded by the United States Govern- 1 ment as an unfriendly act. In return the Spanish Premier replied that the dispute must be settled in accordance with the law of treaties, but he subsequently exhibited a spirit of concession to the extent of directing that the case should be submitted to the Supreme Military Court. This does not appear to have met the views ;of the American Government, which lias proceeded to prepare for war. In the absence of fuller details one feels inclined to think that the Spanish authorities, 111 the difficult position in which they are placed by the persistence of the rebellion in Cuba, are warranted in using drastic measures to check the filibustering aid to the insurgents which American citizens seem only too willing to afford. Another cable message tells that another filibustering vessel bound for Cuba had taken on board 300 men and

10,000 rifles at Florida, and it would appear that the succour given from that source to the insurgents con-

stitutes one of the principal difficulties with which the Spanish officers in the island have to cope. The American Government is justly and coramendably jealous of any interference with the rights of its citizens in foreign parts, hut if these citizens are found behaving themselves in this fashion it is reasonably to be expected that they will find themselves in trouble from which not even the paternal anxiety of the Government will be able to protect them without accepting full responsibility for their actions. The fact, however, appears to be that the sentiment of the States is not dis-

inclined to drift into an overt attempt o help the Cubans to liberty, and this incident of the citizens sentenced from the drumhead is probably as good as any other to serve as a starting point. Recently on the two Houses of Congress resolving to interfere with the Madrid Government, President Cleveland declined to medd.a in the affair; but the pressure of popular feeling appears to have prevailed, and this distinctly hostile attitude has been taken up. It is needless, of course, to look to the

immediate incident for the cause of this forward action. The real intention, to which this is only the occasion for its expression, is to aid the Cubans in revolt And we cannot but feel surprise at such action in a nation that made so heavy sacrifices to maintain the sacred cause of union and to suppress revolt within its own borders as a crime against the State ; and which resented with so much indignation any sympathy expressed with the Southern

rebels on the part of any foreign people.

In sympathising with, and much more in secretly succouring, and now openly abetting the Cuban insurgents, the American people are ignoring the principle under which they fought and bled to suppress revolt in sovereign States, which, as such, claimed, and as some maintained, held, the right to secede, However, circumstances alter cases, and

this revolt in Cuba, being made against a European sovereign, may justify the

change of principle. In any case, it will be more seemly to have the rein tions take the form of open hostilities, than while maintaining a hollow friendship, to allow, perhaps involuntarily, a system of filibustering to proceed which, while giving substantial aid to the insurgents, would only be the occasion for continual misunderstanding between the Governments at Washington and MadridThat in the event of open hostilities between Spain and the United States, the result will ultimately be the deliverance of Cuba, from the Spanish yoke can hardly be doubted. With an army of 80,000 and upward in the island, Spain has been unable to make headway agai i# the rebels, who with their mountain fastnesses and guerilla - attacks are

I enabled to J' indefinitely ; prolong the ' struggle J find the access of such a Power as that of the United States must inevitably turn the scale. With fleets pretty nearly matched, the naval forces of the two nations may neutralise one. another so far as aggressive j attack on each other's territory is con«! cerned, but the vicinity of American ports and territory, and the facilities for pouring in supplies and succour of every kind into the island, coupled with the distance and the interruption of supplies from Spain, must differentiate the conditions of warfare, so as to make it impossible for the Spanish army to maintain its position in Cuba. There may be sympathy, possibly help, rendered to Spain by some of the Continental European powers, who may see in the exclusion of Spain from the New World an aggressive interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine that may seem a menace to other European interests. But everything considered, the loss of Cuba to Spain may be looked on as involved in the ultimate result of any "actual collision between that country and America. Whether her freedom from the strong though somewhat cruel hand of Spain will be a spin to the Queen of thfe Antilles is doubtful. With a population equally divided between black and white, the racial conflict seems inevitable, and reasoning from experience we may expect that deliverance from Spain will be the plunging of this beautiful but .misgoverned island into a deeper and more stormy sea of troubles.