Birmingham state herald., 1897-05-15
TIE SUFFERING IN CUBA lt Will Be the Subject of a Pres
 identiaI Message. THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT I Looks With Favor on an American Proposition to Relieve the Distress Admitted to
 Be on the Island.

l matter, though he is in favor of send l ing to the legislative branch a message
 suggesting that measures be taken look 1 ing to the relief of American citizens in
 Cuba. The message if it goes in will 1 be entirely pacific in tone, and it can be l stated on good authority that it will not
 be of warlike or disturbing tenor. Re- specting the matter President Mckinley l has had cablegrams sent to every consul 1 lar agent in Cuba asking each of them
 to give exact information as to the state l or affairs in his district and to telegraph l replies at once. It was understood to- day by some members of the senate com l mittee on foreign relations that this in- l formation would no doubt be communi- 1 cated to the senate, but whether it would
 be accompanied by message recom-
 mending action was yet a matter of l doubt.
 The meeting of the ca binet today was
 devoted almost entirely to consideration
 of the Cuban question. The meeting oc- l Cured an hour earlier than usual owing l to the importance of the question to be discussed and the fact that the president and the cabinet were leaving for Phila- l delphia a 1245. The cabinet discus sion of the Cuban situation was upon the 1 advisability of asking congress to provide 1 immediate relief for the Americans, who
 are, according to the reports received l from Consul General Lee, pennsd up in
 the cities and in actual danger of starva- l tion.
 | It had no bearing upon the policy of | America towards Spain or the Cuban | insurgents except incidentally, but dealt l with the direct and immediate question
 of relieving destitute Americans on the 1 island.
 Secretary Sherman laid before the cab | inet some of the most important docu- ments in the state department about the | situation and, before the meeting was | over, Judge Day, the assistant seer tary of
 state, personally took to the white house
 some additional papers for which the sec | retary had sent. Every phase of the
 matter was discussed, the advisability of l asking congress for an appropriation, Spains attitude, the methods for distrib- uting relief if it should be decided to en- | ter upon 1t, the necessity or advsa bilty
 of having a warship accompany food supplies. But the final decision of the | question was postponed until Consul l General Lee and other American consuls l in Cuba. ard probably MT. Calhoun, make l their reports by cable to the department. | They have been requested to cable the
 latest facts as to the existing situation. 1 These reports will be here probably when | the president and the cabinet return to- morrow night.
 | It seems extremely probable now that
 a message will be sent to congress, but l hardly before Tuesday as there would be no time 10 prepare 1t befcTe that day unless Mr. Mckinley devoted Sunday to | the task
 The Spanish minister, Senor Dupuy De | Lome called at the state department shortly before noon today and conferred | for some time with Assistant Secretary | Day regarding the reported intention Of
 this government to send relief to Ameri- l cans suffering in Cuba The minister l gave assurance that the Spanish govern-
 ment would be in entire sympathy with l any benevolent movement and would lend | any assistance to it. The Spanish min- i ister does not question the existence of | misery and suffering in the island, but l declares that it is such as accompanies | insurrecton and war, heightened, in this case, by the diseases peculiar to low trop- | ical countries. It is stated that these 1 conditions have exis.ed for months and | have been we'll known. As to the actual l suffering, it is said that it consists main- | ly in the lack of adequate food medicine and nursing for the sick and destitute. The conference lasted for over an hour | and was confined entirely to discussion | of the extension of the relief measures. | No objection was made on behalf of the | Spanish government to the supply of l food, medicine and clothing to the dis 1 tressed Americans in Cuba, but it was 1 clearly unders tood that the relief was to | be extended to American citizens through | agencies not yet decided upon. The Span- l ish authorities have not recorded any ob- jection on their part to a general distri- l pIONlueu pHlS IS IlOl CdTTleQ to | the extent of provisioning the insurgent | forces in :heir resistance to Spain. On l this point it can be stated positively | that it is the present idea of the admin | istration that it will have fulfilled all 1 it's proper functions when 1t has cared 1 for its own citizens. Attention was called | by the Spanish minister to the fact that l the Red Cross had been given full per- l mission to operate in Cuba, and that in l the distribution of it's charitable offices 4 10 afp4xr o1yn- 1fe-ft .iAx. | tionahties, so that the distressed Span- l iard, Cuban or American might with 1 equal right claim its bounty.
 The fact that the senate was not in l session today and that comparatively 1 few sena tors were at the capitol, had a I queting effect on the situation in re- 1 gard to Cuban affairs. There was still, I however, much interest in the course that l the matter may take on Monday. i Senator Morgan said today that the i message of the president, if it should ap- ] ply only to relief measures in the way I of food and clothing, would not cause l him to devia'te from his purpose of press I ing his resolution for the recognition of i a state of war as he had given notice hS would do this after 1t was assumed the president would send in such a message. l The friends of the Morgan resolution will | not antagonize measures looking to tenn 1 porary relief, but they are not disposed 1 10 accept such measures in place of a more far reaching declaration.
 The opposition also probably will ac- | uuiesce in resolution appropriating
 money to relieve immediate wants. l Senator Hale, who is generally recog-
 nized as the leader of the opposition to
 all measures looking to a general declara- l tion in the Cuban question as a rule said l today that while there were. objections l to extending our charity to such an ex- 1 tent. he would be disposed to offer no op-
 position to such a measure.
 Some of the pro-Cubans take the posi- 1 ton that any supplies sent to Cuba
 would merely aid the Spanish cause as l they would practically amount to a con- | tribution to Spain. Hence there Is a pos l sibility of opposition even to the proposed | charity Senator Morgan has no purpose l of changing the form of his resolution in any respect.