Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-15
GENERAL WEYLER'S PLANS Radical Plans of Operations
 Agreed Upon FOR CRUSHING THE ENEMY He VIII Concentrate His Troops and Crush
 the insurgents IF THEY DO Y .HusH HIS ARMY FIRST Insurgents SRegarded as Bandits, Out laws JS Feloas, and Are Treated
 2 Such by the Cruel
 Spaniards.
 %
FOR CRUSHING THE ENEMY
IF THEY DO NJ yRuSH HIS ARMY FIRST

Havana, Feb. 12, via Tampa, Fla Feb 14-General Weyler, after going over the situation with General Marin before the latters departure for Porto Rico, held consultations with Generals Ochando Pando, Valdez, Bazan Marques and AL mada and arranged plan of operations. Radical changes from the former plan of crushing the enemy were agreed upon. The strong line or trocha between Ha- Vana and Batabano is only to be man- tained for convenience of moving troops and observing the passage of the enemy. It Is not to be relied upon to block his movement east or west h. stead of troops scattered along the line, strong force Is to be concentrated at BeJucal, a central point. and trains held In readiness to move the troops north or south. General Bazan will probably be given command of Bejucal. He has been stopping at the Hotel Inglaterra several months, Campos having deprived him of command as the result of alleged harsh treatment of suspects while in charge of Guanatamo. Bazan, who is a fighting man on the field and a courteous man in social life. will undoubtedly be heard from. He Is great friend of Weyler
 
 columns will be replaced by others close to Weyler and in touch with his meth ods.
 A strong force will be sent to Pinsr del Rio, where there are a few troops at present. One column will go by steamer to the south coast and land al Coloma, the principal port of the province. They will march to the capital city, where the troops are now entrenched with barri- cades across the streets, small block houses commanding the approaches. The garrison will be relieved. The column will then act In concert with another col umn entering the province from the east and endeavor to crush the insurgents, who now occupy nearly the entire lnte- rior of the province, using towns as a base of supplies and quarters for the wounded, even having the local govern ment collecting taxes which are due, ap- proprlatfng government money and de- stroying the property of loyal Span- iards. This campaign in the western province is to be conducted with all the energy for which Weyler Is famous.
 Another strong force is to be thrown into Matanzas province, where the reb- els have been carrying things with high hand since Lacret was Joined by the rebel bands from the eastern provinces. In Camaguey and Santiago provinces operations in the field will be continued on former lines, as no large forces are dNdllaDle TOT an aggressive campaign, but increased activity in the arrests of suspects in cities and towns will be be- gun under Weyler's procla re- garding persons who express sympathy or extend aid to insurgents. This is true also in other provinces. Weyler's or der that such prisoners must be laid at his disposal is said by Cubans to mean @ return to the practices of the old war. The official order cancelling the passes permitting correspondents to travel about freely and accompany the Spanish columns Is also said to indicate severe measures about to be inaugu- rated. Many stories of shooting prison- CTS of war and killing innocent citizens reach here. Most of them upon investi- gation prove untrue. In several in- stances, notably at Sabanilla, Cande- laria and Paso Real, there Is strong evil dence from other than Cuban sources tending to prove the truth of the stories of massacre. Some time ago an order was issued to the commanders of the army columns authorizing them to pro- ceed against prisoners captured without turning them over to the higher author ities Under this even petty officers hold the power of executing prisoners if in- convenient or impossible to convey them to the headquarters of the division com mander. The insurgents are regarded as bandits, outlaws and felons and treated as such. Recognition of their belliger- ency by strong nation may possibly al- ter this condition or may intensity it.
 CLARK.