repeating that under Blanco's rule the reconcentrados were no longer objects of pity, indeed that there were no longer any reconcentrados, the pacificos having been left free to return to their farms or homes. On the day before Christmas day an appeal was made to the people of the United States for charitable aid to the unfortunate reconcentrados in Cuba, by the United States secretary of state, as follows: "By direction of the president, the public is informed that, in deference to the earnest desire of the government to contribute by effective action toward the relief of the suffering people in the island of Cuba, arrangements have been perfected by which charitable contributions, in money or in kind, can be sent to the island by the benevolently disposed people of the United States. "Money, provisions, clothing, medicines, and the like articles of prime necessity can be forwarded to General Fitzhugh Lee, the consulgeneral of the United States at Havana, and all articles now dutiable by law, so consigned, will be admitted into Cuba free of duty. The consul-general has been instructed to receive the same and to co-operate with the local authorities and the charitable boards for the distribution of such relief among the destitute and needy people of Cuba. HON. REDFIELD PROCTOR OF VERMONT, REPUBLICAN "The president is confident that the people of the United States, who have on many occasions in the past responded most generously to the cry for bread from peoples stricken by famine or sore calamity, and who have beheld no less generous action on the part of foreign communities when their own countrymen have suffered from fire and flood, will need the appeal for aid that comes from the destitute at their own threshold, and, especially at this season of goodwill and rejoicing, give of their abundance to this humane end." The work of distributing among the reconcentrados the alms of the American people was promptly undertaken by the Red Cross Society, whose agents, with but little sympathetic aid from the Spanish authorities, did what was possible to relieve the terrible distress of the people. Cuba in the President's Message. The president of the United States in his message to congress (December 6) reviews the history of the relations between the United States and the Spanish government in Cuba for the last 70 or 80 years: During all that time, he says, conditions in the island have been such as to cause concern to this country. During the present troubles both the Spaniards and the insurgents have paid no regard to the civilized code of war. On the principle and practice of concentration he pronounces this judgment: "The cruel policy of concentration was initiated February 16, 1896. The productive districts controlled by the Spanish armies were depopulated. The agricultural inhabitants were herded in and about the garrison towns, their lands laid waste and their dwellings destroyed. This policy the late cabinet of Spain justified as a necessary measure of war and as a means of cutting off supplies from the insurgents. It has utterly failed as a war measure. It was not civilized warfare. It was extermination. Against this abuse of the rights of war I have felt constrained on repeated occasions to enter the firm and earnest protest of this government." He summarizes as follows the instructions given to the United States minister at the Spanish court, Mr. Woodford: "The instructions given to our new minister to Spain before his departure for his post, directed him to impress upon that government the sincere wish of the United States to lend its aid toward the ending of the war in Cuba by reaching a peaceful and lasting result, just and honorable alike to Spain and to the Cuban people. These instructions recited the character and duration of the contest, the widespread losses it entails, the burdens and restraints it imposes upon us, with constant disturbance of national interests and the injury resulting from an indefinite continuance of this state of things. It is stated that at this juncture our government was constrained seriously to inquire if the time was not ripe when Spain, of her own volition, moved by her own interests and every sentiment of humanity, should put a stop to this destructive war and make proposals of settlement honorable to herself and just to her Cuban colony. It was urged that as a neighboring nation, with large interests in Cuba, we could be required to wait only a reasonable time for the mother country to establish its authority and restore peace and order within the borders of the island; that we could not contemplate an indefinite period for the accomplishment of this result." The president sees three lines of action open to the United States-recognition of the insurgents as belligerents, recogni tion of the independence of Cuba, and neutral intervention on behalf of a compromise or on humanitarian grounds. He rejects the first course on the ground that it is very doubtful whether "the Cuban insurrection possesses the attributes of statehood, which alone can demand the recognition of belligerency in its favor": besides such recognition would advantage Spain rather than Cuba. The same lack of the essential property of statehood makes recognition of Cuban independence in SENOR ENRIQUE DUPUY DE LOME, McKinley, was given out by the admissible. Of intervention on the ground of humanity he says: "It is honestly due to Spain and to our friendly relations with Spain that she should be given a reasonable chance to realize her expectations, and to prove the asserted efficacy of the new order of things, to which she stands irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of concentration." The De Lome Incident.-A letter written by Sr. De Lôme, the Spanish minister at Washington to José Canalejas, containing very deprecatory remarks upon President Cuban junta January 8. Legation de España, Washington. Eximo Señor Don José Canalejas. My Distinguished and Dear Friend: You need not apologize for not having written to me. I also ought to have written to you, but have not done so on account of being weighed down with work, and nous sommes quittes. The situation here continues unchanged. Everything depends on the political and military success in Cuba. The prologue of this second method of warfare will end the day that the colonial cabinet will be appointed, and it relieves us in the eyes of this country of a part of the responsibility of what may happen there, and they must cast the responsibility upon the Cubans, whom they believe to be so immaculate. THE UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP MAINE." Destroyed by an explosion, in Havana harbor, February 15, 1898. Until then we will not be able to see clearly, and I consider it to be a loss of time and an advance by the wrong road, the sending of emissaries to the rebel field, the negotiating with the autonomists not yet declared to be legally constituted, and the discovery of the intentions and purpose of this government. The exiles will return one by one, and when they return will come walking into the sheepfold, and the chiefs will gradually return. Neither of these had the courage to leave en masse, and they will not have the courage to thus return. The message has undeceived the insurgents, who expected something else, and has paralyzed the action of congress, but I consider it bad. Besides the natural and inevitable coarseness with which he repeats all that the press and public opinion of Spain has said of Weyler, it shows once more what McKinley is, weak and catering to the rabble, and besides, a low politician, who desires to leave a door open to me and to stand well with the jingoes of his party. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, it will only depend on ourselves whether he will prove bad and adverse to us. I agree entirely with you, without a military success nothing will be accomplished there, and without military and political success there is here always danger that the insurgents will be encouraged, if not by the government, at least by part of the public opinion. I do not believe you pay enough attention to the role of England. Nearly all that newspaper canaille which swarms in your hotel are English, and at the same time that they are correspondents of "The Journal," they are also correspondents of the best newspapers and reviews of London. Thus it has been since the beginning. To my mind the only object of England is that the Americans should occupy themselves with us and leave her in peace, and if there is a war, so much the better; that would further remove what is threatening her-although that will never happen. It would be most important that you should agitate the question of commercial relations, even though it would be only for effect, and that you should send here a man of importance in order that I might use him to make a propaganda among the senators and others in opposition to the Junta and to win over exiles. There goes Amblarad. I believe he comes too deeply taken up with little political matters, and there must be something very great or we shall lose. Adela returns your salutation, and we wish you in the new year to be a messenger of peace and take this new year's present to poor Spain. Always your attentive friend and servant, who kisses your hands. The publication of this letter in a facsimile of the original and in an English translation, made a very awkward situation for the minister. After a feeble attempt to discredit its authenticity, Sr. de Lôme cabled to Madrid his resignation of office, which was forthwith accepted. The |