Evening star., 1897-12-04
The Problem Confronting the New
Captain General.
FEELING TOWARD THE UNITED STATES
Commercial Interests Prefer An
nexation to Autonomy.
CHI ANGE OF OFFICIALS

| special correspondence Of The Evening Star.
| HAVANA, Cuba. December l. 1897
| Captain General Blanco is charged with
| the task of winning back Cuba to Spain. 1t
f, Is more than a labor of Hercules The
| architect of Spain's new colonial policy has
| set for himself the building of a SUPER
structure of home rule over charneI
| house. To succeed he must have hearty
Cuban good will and loyal support OF the
| Spaniards on the island. Either element
| alone will not be enough. Gen. Blanco has
| been here a month. and neither element
has accepted the new conditions They arc
| either halting or hostile.
| To one fresh from the states the impress
sion Is that of deadened community. The
| Indifference is in marked contrast to the
| live discussion which goes on in the United
| States, where the terms of autonomy are
| weighed and their meaning subjected 10
discriminating study. In Havana the COM
| mon comment is that the terms are of no
| particular consequence long as no one
wants the thing itself. 1t is too much for
| the Spaniards or peninsulars and too little
for the Cubans or insulars. Last spring"
| said one of the American residents here,
| the talk was of Canovas' reforms. Now It
| is of Sagasta's autonomy. but you'n find
| everything now about it was then. Tho
are dying faster than the reconcentradoes.
| because there are more of them to die. and
fever runs a quicker course than starva-
ticn.''
| Hostility to Autonomy.
Time enough has elapsed for the intransi-
| gentes, or fiercely loyal spaniards. to ana
| lyze the decree of autonomy, but they pay
| little attention to its details. The conces-
sion of customs control to Cuba has inten-
sifed their hostility, Yet they would have
been a class of irreconcables with that
| left out. Their fear from the beginning
| has been that Sagasta and Moret were
ready to grant some real measure of home
| rule, and this they will not have in any
| form. If the hostility TO autonomy were
| confined to the corrupt official element,
! which in practice has lived up to the
| theory that Cuba exists only to be plum
| dered, it could be overcome by the repress-
! i've hand which Spain has always known
| how to stretch forth to stiie discomfort. But
| when this feeling spreads through the mer-
| chants, the manufacturers and the trades
| men it becomes the sentiment of what has
heretofore been the dominating class. Its
personalities are influential and foroeful.
With the governing powers at the palace
| there is little pretense of velvet i'm deal
| ing with their own. Once autonomy was
| little less than sedition. Now opposition to
| autonomy is the next thing to treason.
The union constitutional or pro-Spanish
party is under the ban, while If enough
liberals and reformistos to make a party
could be got together under the flag oe
autonomy they would be the favored Or
ganzation. Nevertheless the Spanish ele-
ment which is fighting autonomy does not
lack boldness. 1t has a definite program
and is just resolute as the Sagasta min
iStry and Captain General Blanco
If the opposition is not demonstratIve It
is determined. L have already heard the
boast that Blanco will be driven from
power as Martinez Campos was and will be
glad to retire within three months. The
Casino Espanol, or Spanish Club is not in
open revolt, yet its members for the most
part ostratise Blanco and his followers. A
Spaniard coming to Cuba to carry out a
policy of home rule is made to feel that
he is an alien among his own people. The
volunteers have not mutinied. nor are they
likely TO mutiny. But Their sulenness has
the same effect They are on the eve OF a
struggle with the captain general. because
he wants them to be ready to take the field.
The shopkeepers. who compose the volun-
teers, filled with Indignation. They did
not enlist with the idea of fighting the in
surgents in order to enforce Cuban govern
ment in Cuba. The volunteers We're formed
to sustain Spanish rule, or misrue, among
the Cubans. An illustration of unprejudiced
opinion on Blancos difficulties given
me the other day by foreigner. He said
if the captain general could drown Span
lard for every Cuban that General Weyler
had starved to death the home-rule policy
might be entered upon with some prospect
of success. The suggestion would have
seemed brutal anywhere except in this part
of the world. where long-continued ferocity
has dulled the sensibilities. 1t could not
De carried out literally. The Spaniards in
Cuba are said to number 10000. More
than that number of helpless Cuban pacif-
Goes have gone to their graves.
Want Annexation to United States.
The feeling of the intransigentes, or ultra
Spaniards. toward the United States is one
of mingled emotions. The manifestations
against Americans not violent as
formerly. The Spanish merchants COM
plain of cor cessons about tobacco and
other favoritsm at their expense. They
de clare no gratitude is shown for the re-
lease of the prisoners They are skep;ical
over the promise that Minister de LONE
will keep the friends of Cuba in Congress
split up so that neither belligerency nor
slnQepenOence VIII De recognized
dentally, it may be said that much is
heard in Havana about what Mr. de LONE
does not mean to let Congress do. With
all their complaints against the United
States the Spaniards here show a certain
complacency. In showing 1t they disclose
their program Of opposition to autonomy.
1t is simply annexation. I have found 1t
useless in talking with some OF them to ex-
plain that the United States must be con.
suited on that point and that far as
personal observation goes public sentiment
is Overwhelmingly against Cuban annexa-
ton. The Spanish commercial class In Ha.
vana will have it otherwise. They would
rather stay Spanish, hut between either
genuine home rule for Cuba or Cuban in
dependence on the one side and annexation
on the other side the majority OF them
would pronounce unhesitatingly for an.
nexation. the feeling which animates some