DECLINING TO INCREASE TAXATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11112, 13 May 1898, Page 2

DECLINING TO INCREASE TAXATION.

FEMALE KIOTEIIS,

■ Madrid, May 12, (Received May lIS, at l.a.m.').

The Chamber dualltied to sanciion aa increase of 20 per cent, in the taxation. Rioters at Logrono pillaged the food stores. A. mob of women, armed with axes and cnoppers, compelled the cavalry to rotire. '

A MOVEMENT IN FAVOUEOP PEACE. London, May 12. (Received May 13, at 0.40 a.m.) The Telegraph ptats? uaofficlally ibat the foreign Ambassadors at Washington are discussing a movement in favour of peac?. ; .. .

WHAT AMERICANS MAY EXPECT INj OUBA. Now that it has been definitely decided to invade Cuba ifc may be pointed out that the extraordinary and elaborate mathods ot the. Spaniards in dealing with the Cuban rebate will coma into fores, in tb« international struggle. During the rebellion (says an exchange), tue j Spaniards had a l»rge force scattered over the country holding all the fortiflsd places, and a complete military supervision over th'J movements of evi;r,y individual was ssto-blished, no person being allowed to go from onr, town to another unless under the eurvuilliiuos of a. military guard. Two years ago, when the rebellion broka out, tha Spaniards covered tha island with small redoubts, or forts, occupied by bauds of soldiery, who make daily raids into the surrounding country. Ib was part of General WeylerV, plan to check concerted movements among the robola, aud to devastate their country, aud hence Cuba is to day bristling with these little forts, sometimes planted so close that the soldiers can pitch a cartridge from one into anothsr. In the war with the Amerioans these works will play no small part in the gnerilla fighting that will take place. The most remarkable feature of the Spanish field operations in Cuba is the " troeha," or obstacle stretched across the island from Moron on tho north to Jucu.ro on tbe south, nad dividing tho it-land with a barric&de which formed the strategical backbone of the Spanish movements against the insurgents This piece of fi«ld engineering is s work of real magnitude. For 50 miiefl in length,- over mouutain mid plain, the Spanish fcroopa have cleared a track 150 yds to 200ydf> wide through denae bush and scrub. With tho trunks of fullen trees a barrier is formed on eaoh side of the clearing; along j the clearing is a military railroad ; alongside of tho railway is a, line of forts, a quarter of a milu apart; aud then a rasza of. barbed wire fixed up on strong post.* 4ft Inr sft hint). Thero are 450 yds of wire in every

12yds length of entanglament. In addition to these formidable obstacles, bombs are hidden in tha eartb, and their detonators connected with' several wires pegged out on the ground, co that anyone tripping oa a wirewill explode a bomb. The trooha is another application of the system of field barricades adopted by the British in Egypt under the nijnie of .the zareba, with thie important diffsrenoe that the British cleared away all cover for pome hundreds of yards from the breastwork, whereas the log fences in tha trocha are in close proximity to the jungle. It is intended to form an absolute barrier to the progress of large bodies of troops, and would probably do so, unless they were provided with artillery. A small foras of 600 insurgents crossed it with a loss of 27 billed and the same numbsr wounded ; but the barricades and forts were not then complete. A large force acting on the defensive inside the trocha might, however, find it a snsro rather than a protection. The forts would not afford cover for more than 200 men each, and the torce engaged in the open would be under fire from an enemy sheltered by the busk and by the log barriers on either side. Thß trouha might time bo converted into a doath trap for those who built it.