The herald., 1896-01-08
RECOGNITION is EXPECTED
II the RevoIutionists Capture and Hold
Important Towns
II Guerilla Warfare Succeeds Until Yellow
Fever Takes the Field
No Force Which Spain Can Command Will
Suffice to Subdue the RebeIiIon-War-
ships Are Needed to Protect
American Interests
Associated Press sneclal Wire.

Associated Press speclal Wire.
New YORK, Jan. 1.-THE central cable
Office of the Western Union Telegraph
company sent out the following today:
Railway communication between Havana
and the Cuban Submarine company's sta
ton at Batabano has been re-established.
Trains leave twice day. a. m. and 2 p.
M, returning about the same hours. Tele-
grams for West Indian points south of
Havana can go forward via Key West, sub
ject to some delay.
The insurgents commanded by Zayas
were reported at different times yesterday
at Caimito, Guayabal Hoyo, Colorado and
Punta Brava, showing that he followed
pretty closely the line between the provinces
of Pinar del Rio and Havana, up to The
extreme northeastern portion of Pinar del
Rio. This brought him into the region into
which large numbers of troops have been
sent to guard the western approach to Ha-
vana. 1t does not appear that the insur-
gents were in any great force, and no en-
gagements are reported.
The fields of the Valdespino estate have
been burned and the villages of Puerto La
Clara and Mariero have also been put to
the torch after betng plundered, according
to the report received here.
The influx of refugees from the whole of
the territory surrounding Havana contin-
ues and apparently it is not possible to OBJ
tain sufficient means of transportation to
accommodate the fleeing families and
their household goods. The country
seems to be entirely abandoned to the in
surgent army and no movement appar-
emily avails to check them.
The eastern portion of the island seems
not to have been entirely stripped of any
effective force of insurgents. A report
from Santa Clara says that the troops en-
countered the insurgent band led by
Pancho Carrillo and in the battle which
ensued sustained a loss of fifty.
EXCITEMENT IN MEXICO
MEXICO CITY, Jan. THE report re-
ceived last night that Havana had been
taken by the insurgents created the utmost
excitement. Cubans. Americans and
Mexicaps fraternized in the streets and
places of public resort, while Spaniards
congregated in Spanish clubs.
The Mexican Herald Office, which paper
receives the Associated Press reports, was
thronged all night by people anxiously
awaiting news of confirmation. 1t is pre-
dicted if tEe insurgents capture and hold
important towns the government will
recognize their belligerency.
REPORTS OF FIGHTING
HAVANA, Jan. 7.-Word has been re-
ceved that the sounds of cannon and mus
kerry have been heard in the neighbor-
hood of Guanajay, an important town of
1000 inhabitants in Pnar del Rio, forty
five miles south of Havana. 1t is supposed
that an engagement is taking place there
between the forces of General Suarez VAL
dez and the insurgents, but the numbers
engaged or the course which the fortune of
the fight is taking, is not known.
The insurgents are burning and destroy
ing property up to within eight miles of
Havana.
AS TO RECOGNITION.
WASHINGTON, Jan. Tone of the men,
bers of the foreign affairs committee of the
house, when asked whether the recent sue
cesses of the insurgents in Cuba would
hasten the recognition by the government
of their rights as belligerents, said:
''The state department is now preparing,
in answer to a resolution of the house, cop
les of all the correspondence which has
taken place since the breaking out of the
rebellion in February. That will, of course,
include letters from the Spanish minister.
If those letters should prove to be Dragging
declarations that the Spanish forces would
put the rebellion down in week or two it
will have the effect of demonstrating to
the house that the rebellion is now cer-
tainly beyond the control of The home gov
ernment. The Spanish minister has adj
mitted that his government now has on the
island lOO, 900 troops, and yet the insur-
gents are now within few miles of Ha-
vana.
"The difficulty we have to contend with
In moving for the recognition of the pat
riots as belligerents is that they have no
organized army and no fixed seat of gov
ernment. Their plan has been not to have
an army, for if their forces were concen-
trated the Spanish regulars would undoubt-
edly overwhelm them. Recognition by this
government would have only moral
effect, whereas it now looks as if the in
surgents were working out their own saliva
tioh without assistance from the outside
world.
''If they continue their successful guerilla
warfare until next April, when yellow fever
takes the field, it will be impossible to sub
due them by any force which Spain can
command. The civil leaders of the revo-
luton, unfortunately for us, do not aim at
independence. They say they do not care
to go through 80 or 40 years similar to ohe
early experiences of Mexico, and hence
they are all for annexation to the United
States. I doubt much whether our people
are prepared at the present time to assume
the government of Cuba, with its mixed
population fresh from Spanish rule and
gdnerally untitled for American citizen
ship. However that may be, it is evident
that affairs on the island are approaching
crisis and we must be prepared TO pro-
tect American interests, whatever our at
this reason, if for no other, am inclined
to doubt the truth of the story that the adj
ministration has beeu preparing to use our
Norn Atlantic squadron to make DEM
onstration in Turkish waters. We are la
BILE to need our warships to protect our in
tests on the island of Cuba.
"lf the insurgents take possession of any
OF the large cities or should assume con-
troll of the civil government of the island