The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-07-12
THE CUBAN REVOLUTION.


ments have been made public re-
Gently. One is a letter from Pre-
sident Cisneros of the Cuban re-
public, to President Mckinley,
giving his report of the situation
In Cuba. The other is from a
special correspondent sent out by
the Washington Star, who travelled
from one end of the island to the
other, and who appears to have had
every opportunity afforded to him
to report impartially on the actual
condition of the country, and the
war, based on reliable information.
President Cisneros says:
The civil branch of the Government
is well established, and it's 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 years ago, while the taxes lev
led and collected by this Government
have in the three provinces amounted
to more than $3S0,000.
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 Pr1n-
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 a 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:
o;r
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 hktly 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 1SO, 900 to 200, 900. He claims to |
have pacified the four provinces OF |
Pinar del. Rio, Havana. The largest |
proportion of the Spanish soldiers not |
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 az 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 Gomez's 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.
l was told by insurgent sympathiZers
in Havana that in a military sense the
instruction was stronger than ever.
My observation of the campaigning did
not justify this assertion. The insur-
Is perhaps DSCduSc ISI- |
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 a
body of insurgents within sight of Ha-
vana, as he once did.
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. I know from per-
sonal investigation of instances where
the hospitals of the insurgents have