The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-11
MARIN's COMPLAINT.

IL.
The Associated Press dispatches of
yesterday contain some rather anus
ing remarks of General Marin, the
temporary commander-in-chief of the
Spanish army in Cuba. He is repre-
sented as saying that since he had
been engaged, as part of his command
has been of late, with both Gomez
and Maceo, his estimation of the in
surgents has not undergone any
change. 1.-THE insurgents" he is rep
resented to have said, "can never be
recognized as a military organization,
because the first consideration of an
organized army is it's honor. The in
surgents think it no honor to fly from
the enemy and avoid encounter. A
regular military body would consider
it dfshonorable to attack a defenseless
group of soldiers, but the insurgents
think nothing OF capturing men who
are simply acting as carriers. They do
not hesitate to force defenseless citi-
zens to accompany them, which of
course results simply in their being
used as targets for the Spanish arms"
The general explanation of Spanish
failure to crush the revolution in Cuba
thus far has been that the Spanish
army lacked cavalry to cope with the
cavalry force of the insurgents 1t
was because the Cubans were mounted
and the Spaniards on foot that the for
mer were able invariably to make their
DIT
have it 50. He is of opinion that if
the Spanish had had more cavalry the
Cubans would have adopted other
means of warfare 'Their policy" he
says, 'is to deviate from all lines of
regular civilized warfare In other
words, war with them is mere an
archy, If we had plenty of Spanish
cavalry they would have resorted to
ambush surprises and other like tricks.
They would have waited for the cav
airy to come up and then destroy
them. Whenever we have an encounter
there never is any doubt of the Span
ish defeating the insurgents, even if
the odds is four to one in their favor.
The insurgents run away, There was
an illustration of this day before yes
terday in the encounter we had with
them near San CristobaI, when 900 of
our men We're attacked by 1000 or 5000
insurgents, and our men defeated
them"
All this simply amounts to a, wall on
the part of the Spanish general, that
the Cubans refuse to come out in the
open and be shot down by the regular
Spanish troops. When the Cubans be-
gan the present war for their liberty
they knew from the start that they
could not put an army in the field
capable of meeting in regular
European modes of warfare the
military force Spain would likely
send against them; and every
body but General Marin under
stood that the Cubans would from
necessity be compelled to adopt the
Fabian methods of war. The only
fear their friends have had has been
that, flushed with the success which
enabled them to almost lay seige to
Havana, the insurgents would be
tempted to risk a general engagement,
in which they might have been
crushed.
General Marin's talk to the agent of
the Associated Press clearly bears evil
dence that he is a soldier who belongs
ito a very, very obsolete past. To a
past that reaches beyond the European
wars of Napoleon; for that master
genius of war served notice upon
rho 11oruayc of TTr1roy,a -, 1,;- TO- 49,
the style of warfare which stationed
opposing armies in position and then
led one commander to notify the other
that all his divisions were in order.
would he have the goodness to
begin the battle-Was at an
end. and modern warfare was
inaugurated. The one thing aimed
at in war is to destroy the enemy, or
inflict such punishment upon him as
will bring him to terms. Between ar
mics Of equal strength, equally well
armed, and each stationed to adyan-
tage, to be beaten and driven from the
field might be considered humiliatine.
and to retreat because of cowardice
positively a disgrace; but the tactics
of Fabius adopted as g policy, espec
tally when contending with a superior
foe, that is, superior in numbers and
equipment, to strike and retract, to
ambuscade, to attack only when con-
fdent, is not dishonorable warfare.
The yCubans are patriots fighting for
freedom--f1ghting for the right of self
government. They are opposed by su-
perfor numbers, by the well-drilled and
well-equipped armies of Spain. Under
such circumstances their kind of war
fare is perfectly justifable, and Cen
eral Marin exposes himself to rfdicule
by his complaints that the Cubans
will not come out in the open and be
shot.
THE STATE PRINTER.