The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1897-07-13

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President Cisneros says:
The civil branch of the Government
is well established, and its workings
are daily becoming more thoughtful
and complete.
The entire province of Santiago, with
the exception of several large towns
is entirely under our control In more
than 200 cities, towns and villages
Spain has not a soldier, and has ap-
parently relinquished all claims to that
territory.
Spain collects today but one-eighth
of the annual taxes in Puerto Principe
Santa Clara and Santiago provinces she
did two wears ago, while the taxes lev
led and collected by this Government
have in the three provinces amounted
to more than $3.50, 900.
These taxes are not collected by aid
of the military. The levy is fixed by
our Secretary of the Treasury with the
counsel of the Secretary of the Interior
and the civil officers in the various pre-
fects collect the same in the regular
way. We have established throughout
the island system of mails An i'm
portant feature of the civil govern
ment has been the issuing of books and
the establishing of schools. In various
sections of Santiago and Puerto Prin-
cipe school houses have been erected
and native teachers appointed.
The army in the field, under the COM
mand of my brave and true friend, Gen
eral-in-Chief Maxine Gomez, is con-
Quoting war of energy and mercy
! The rules of government and the die
| tation Of humanity direct it.
The struggle may go on for years,
and Cuba may continue to fight the
! battle against fearful odds alone, but
so long as there is a God to give us
courage we will cling to the banner Of
right and freedom, and never falter
until the victory is won.
The following are taken from
the Washington Stars correspond
ent's report:
l have been asked since returning
from Cuba about the extent and the
prospect of the military operations
there. The essence of the situation is
simple enough. Weyler and Gomez
dispute the mastery of the desert waste
which they have jointly made The
sovereignty is a divided one, with lit
tie probability of either ever holding
full sway. There is, however, some
thing resembling war still going on,
and liktly to go on. 1t is a war in
which Spain cannot conquer the insur-
gents, and the insurgents cannot drive
the Spanish troops from the island.
General Weyler now has under his
command a force variously estimated
at from 100000 to 100000 He claims to
have pacified the four provinces OF
Pinar del Rio, Havana The largest
proportion of the Spanish soldiers not
in hospitals are operating in Santa
Clara. They have been shifted from
the western part of the island
The insurgents, for all practical pur-
poses, hold the two eastern provinces
of Santiago and Puerto Principe They
let the Spaniards keep most of the sea-
ports, because they themselves have
not the men to hold large towns Gen
eral Gomez has under him a force of
insurgents which is estimated all the
way from $4,000 to $4,000.
The insurgents in the different prov
inces are practically separate armies,
but they all obey Gomezs orders, and
no important military operations are
undertaken without his direction
Garcia was a rebel leader in the 10
years war. He is looked upon by the
insurgents as their coming general,
and if anything happened to Gomez he
would succeed to the command of the
army. This spring his operations
against the Spanish troops have been
brilliant and almost uniformly success
full. Charles Gordon, a Georgian, is
one of Gomez's trusted lieutenants.
/ was told by insurgent sympathizers
ineHavana that in military sense the
instruction was stronger than ever.
My observation of the campaigning did
not justify this assertion The insur-
rection is perhaps stronger because rel
atively Spain is weaker AS to military
operations, it would be idle to say that
General Weyler, with his 100000 SOL
diers, has accomplished nothing. 1t is
doubtful if Gomez could now lead
body of insurgents within sight of Ha-
vana, as he once did.
l have been asked whether the guer-
rilla method of carrying on the war
does not add to its savagery That may
be an open question, but as the desola-
ton grows and spreads, the savagery
does increase. 1t has already been
commented on that General Weyler
shoots prisoners of war contrary to the
usages of civilized nations. That is
only half the story. l know from per-
sonal investigation of instances where
the hospitals of the insurgents have
been destroyed by the Spanish troops
and the wounded insurgents and their
attendants, murdered. There is no ex-
aggeration in the reports which have
come to the United States of these at
tacks on the hospitals Nor have the
atrocities of the guerrillas, who are
part of the Spanish forces, been exag-
gerated. The guerrillas do drag the
bodies Of their victims into the town
to be publicly exhibited. They are
guilty of unspeakable crimes.
These extracts are quite sufi-
cient to show that the war in Cuba