The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-22

TIE May Review Of Reviews con-
tlius from the pen of stephen Bonsal
q review Of the Cuban situation which
merits general perusal. Mr. Bonsal has
for a generation been an expert war
correspondent, has held positions Of
diplomatic trust under the American
state department and has, while in
Cuba, enjoyed the full confidence of
Consul General Lee. We give below
the substantial parts of Mr.. Bonsaps
paper.
The war presents two phases: The
war which Is waged upon the insurg-
ents In the field, and that which Is
wnged against the pacificos, or non
combatants, old men, women and chill
dren. who. driven together like herds
of cattle from all over the island, are
huddled together around the fortified
and garrfsoned towns In the possession
OF the Spantards, and there left to re-
sumo the struggle for existence with
out any assistance whatever from the
authorities.
FREE CUBA"
For the purpose OF clearness, in de-
scribing the military situation, the
island can be divided into two parts,
where the con1ititrs presented are dis
tfnctly different. The Jucaro Moron
trocha, as II serves no other purpose,
we can utilize as our divisional line To
the eest Of this trocha, lie tbe provinces
of Puerto Principe and Santiago de
Cuba, which is today to all intents and
purposes free Cuba, Cuba Libre. Here
the qlrajros, the small farmer class,
have not been driven into the towns to
sicl1en, starve and die. They still oc-
cupy their homesteads in the campo;
and while they have often suffered
from the military operations carried
on in their vicinity; both at the hands
of the Spanish and the Cuban forces,
they have in very great measure es-
capped from the horrors which charoc-
terize this inhuman war. Within the
borders then Of free Cuba, which in eN-
tent is about one-half of the island, the
Spapiards hold some twelve or nfteen
towns, which they are pleased to call
strategic points of great Importance.
Bayamo, Jiguant and Holguin are the
only inland towrs which now occur to
me as being in the possession of the
Spaniards The other strategic points
are on the sea coast, open ports and
roadsteads, from which it would be
easy to withdraw. The possession of
these three inland towns is at present
the chief drain upon the resources of
the Spaniards. And the withdrawal of
the forces from these points by the
military authorities would be stroke
of strategy and great misfortune to
the insurgents forces in the field. For
it can be said without fear of CONTRA
diction that during the past twelve
months the army of Calixto Garcia has
been almost exclusively fed, clothed
and armed with the stores captured
from the military conveys.
SPANISH CUBA"
West of the trocha of Jucaro- Moron,
in the four provinces of Santa Clara,
Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Rio,
the conditions observable are quite diff
ferent. The whole country has been
reduced to a mass of ruins and ashes
by what General Weyler has been
pleased to call due process of military
law. With the exception of some twen-
ty or thirty Centrales, or sugar es-
tates there has not been left standing
a single house, not even guano hut,
in these four provinces, outside of the
Spanish lines surrounding the occupie1 1
towns. While these sugar estates
have been guarded by large bodies Of
regular Spanish troops and by bands
of irregulars, movilzados. as they are
L
when 1 say that not even upon these
estates, which fly the Spanish flag,
which are surrounded by innumerable
forts and trochas Oh a small scale, a
single sack of sugar has been made
that has not paid the tax imposed by
the local perfecto of the Cuban Re-
public.
In these four provinces, the western
half OF the island, which has been re-
duced to mass Of gray AMI smoking
ruins, where not a single house re
mains standing or q single inh6bitant
following the pursuits of peace, in this
desert which was once the scene of
marvellous fertility, every green and
growing thing has been cut down. and
every plant has been uprooted In this
wilderness which they have made, the
Spanish guerrillas and now and again
a column of regular troops roam about
in search of the patriot partidas, with
whom. however. they very rarely come
in contact. The Spaniards keep to the
calzadas, or paved highways, the Gu
bans patronize the country roads and
the OPEN country. And so hostile
meetings are generally obviated. except
when one side or the other-because
the Spanish forces have absolutely
adopted the Cuban tactics-form an
ampuscade, or secs good opportunity
for little bushwhacking.
Close reading of Weylers proolana
ton Of reconcentracion will show that
men and women and children who may
be found eight days after it's publica-
ton in this desert, which was once the
garden of a peerless island, are to be
regarded ss rebels and treated as reb-
els are by the officers of Her Most
Catholic Majesty's army--that is, they
are to be shot down IN cold blood
Though sometimes. as an act OF par
ticular clemency, the women and the
children are sent to the nearest reco-
gidas. or prison for prostitutes. The
proclamation authorizes this inhuman
conduct, and the authorization is
strengthened and sharpened by the
private instructions to chiefs of guer.
rillas and heads of columns to avoid
taking prisoners,
The character of the operations car
ried on by the Spaniards in the western
province is quite different from the tao
tic In the country beyond the eastern
trocha- In the west Spanish columns
of any size move about with freedom
and are never seriously attacked, but
merely harassed by a dropping fire
from the hilltops as long as they re.
main on the the great highways, which
they invariably do. But beyond tn,
trocha in Free Cuba, for the last si2
months there has not been an opera.
ton or a movement from the Spanish
side which was not directly connected
with the now long sustained and mos
exhaustinR effort 10 ravicfuaI tha ir