Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-10
ABSOLUTE PROOF REQUIRED
Before Cuban Sympathizers Can
Be Deported.
WEYLER'S LAST CIRCULAR
Modfes His lnhuman Proclamation of Feb
ruary i6 Last.
HE is PLAYING TO THE GRAND STAND
Innocent Men Have Been Dragged From
Their Homes and Deported to the
vilest Penal Colony on Earth
Without Trial.
He is PLAYING TO THE GRAND STAND


March 9.-Arrests of civilians under the
sweeping provisions of General Weylers
proclamation of February 16 have been
made at such a rate, and in many cases
with so little evidence of guilt that Cen
eral Weyler was impelled a week ago to
issue instructions to his officers to be more
caretul, as he required more proof than
verbal denuneiation. Yesterday he is
sued circular in which he stated that
absolute proof must be furnished by 9TH
ers than interested parties before accus-
ed prisoners were -deported and warning
commanders that they will be held re-
sponsible for false arrests Without
doubt General Weyler has in view the eff
feet of this order abroad as we'll as here,
Ior the manner in which Cubans who
nave never borne arms against Spain
have been dragged from their homes,
his arrival, set al liberty number of
farms and thrown into prisons with fell
ons and after a few days delay placed
on board ship for what is probably the
West penal colony on the face of the
earth, has become a shame that cries
aloud for redress. General Weyler. upon
his arrival, set at liberty a number of
these civilian prisoners whom General
Pando had taken from their daily occu-
padons in the eastern end of the island
day. They were white intelligent look
ing and bore the appearance of being
shopkeepers or clerks. They were not
Dronzed by exposure to the weather as
all who are in the field are. The only evi-
dence against these men was a paper
purporting to be list of the people who,
were aiding and communicating with the
enemy. 1t was made up by a Spaniard
Since that time General Weyler has re-
leased others captured in the same way
hundreds have, however, been sent to
Ceuta, Africa, and to the Isle of Pines.
and the arrests are increasing in num-
ber
General Weyler has removed the al
oaldes of all towns in whom he. had not
absolute confidence and has appointed
tle ranking military officers of regular
loops or volunteers alcade, or mayor
These men are usually of the grade of
lieutenant or major. They possess arbi-
trary powers. Under the proclamation
the life or death of every man, woman or
child in their zone is In their hands. A
large proportion of these commanders
believe Weyler to be a man of severe
measures, a man who will quietly APP
prove any extreme act on their part
They look upon his circulars as intended
for effect in the United tSates. They look
for no punishment for summary execu-
tions of Cubans who sympathize with the
insurgents. They expect praise and pre-
motion for shooting war prisoners as
soon as taken. In their reports they are
careful to have the prisoners or the
peaceful citizens killed found in the field
after an engagement but between the
lines the manner in which the victims
met their death is not difficult to deci-
pher. General Cannella was sent back to
Spain by Weyler either for having shot
down seventeen prisoners or for having
reported seventeen bodies were found
afterward in another part of the field"
but the man who confessed to his friends
here, and probably to General Weyler
of having killed seventeen people in cold
blood received no more severe punish
ment than being deprived of his com
mand.
When the horrible story of the
butchery of eighteen peaceable cit
izens in the little hamlet of
Guatao was published in the United
States and wired back here General Wey-
Ter announced that he would make a
thorough examination and would severe
ly punish whoever was responsible for
the outrage, IL one had been committed
Two weeks have gone by since the affair
occurred and no official has lost his
stripes Guatao was so near Havana
that American correspondents succeeded
in demonstrating the absolute truth of
the story. Dozens of reports of the affair
have been received here but the au-
thorities have placed such obstacles in
the way of correspondents that it Is i'm
possible to visit the localities and estab-
lish the facts. In a dozen cases refugees
from towns where fights have occurred
state that after the rebels are driven
away citizens who took no part were
shot down and counted In the official re-
ports as dead insurgents. The govern
ment officials deny these stories, and
while 1t is common talk in Havana that
certain affairs were butcheries, the corre-
spondents are in most cases obliged TO
accept the government version. / have
visited towns where nearly every family
had fled in terror leaving dishes stand
ing upon tables and everything in disor.
der, showing the haste In which homes
were abandoned l talked with the few
who remained and was told that the peo-
pie did not dread the insurgents, but
fled from fear of the excesses of the
Spanish troops On the other hand in
some sections where towns have been
used by the Spanish the insurgents have
burned the whole town and the people
were left homeless. Other towns, which
have harbored the insurgents, have been
destroyed by the Spanish troops, and
the wreck and ruin which is being visited
upon the fair island of Cuba is pitiful to
contemplate. But the ease with which
life is sustained In the tropics thousands
would have perished before this and the
island would be a charnel house before
this end is reached. In many towns there
have been no provisions for weeks. Peo-
pie have lived by sucking sugar cane and
eating plantains. Families have camped
for days upon the ruins of their homes in
burned districts, sleeping upon the
ground at night and crawling under a
matched roof during the heat of the SUM-
Those who could have sought refuge in
the cities. and the few In proportion who
had the means, have escaped to the Uni
ted States. Mexico OF some other country,
where peaceable citizens are not liable to
summary execution
J. FRANK CLARK.