The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-04-04
WORSE THAN ARMENIA
An ENGLIsHMAN'S PICTURE OF THE
HORRORS OF WAR IN CUBA.
Gen. weyIer Fully Entitled to the
Epithet "Butchcr"-A Policy of Dew
~astation and determination

NEW YORK, April 4.-C. f. Akers, who
has for two years been the London Times
correspondent at Havana, has a four-col-
umn letter in the World, in which he de-
clares that the worst horrors of Crete and
Armenia are equaled by Spanish bartari-
ties in Cuba, and that it is the moral duty
cf the United States to stop the war. Mr..
Akers says: THE end of the dry season
is now at hand, and Spain has accomplished
little toward the paciication of Cuba. Ger
tain gains have most certainly fallen to the
Spaniards. the death of Maceo In December
and the capture of Rivera a few days ago
being the most notable. But at what cost
has the campaign been conducted? The
provinces of Pinar del Rio and Havana and
large portions of Matanzas and Santa Clara
are one staring mass of cinders. Desola-
ton II determination meet the eye al
every point. Ruin in the present, famine,
disease and death in the future are all that
the Cubans can hope for while Cuba re-
mains under Spanish rule. Under these cir
cumstances | do not think that the death
Of this or that leader can bring victory any
nearer to the Spanish arms. Where one
such man as Ruis Rivera is lost to the in
surgents a hundred spring up to take his
place.
Moreover. it must not be forgotten tina
this guerrilla warfare needs not any great
genius TO conduct it. 1t is, to a very
great extent, every man for himself and
the devil take the hindmost.' the only
object in view is to keep the country in
such a condition of unrest as to make i'm
perative the presence of an enormous army
of occupation. Small parties of fifty or
one hundred men scattered throughout the
island can do this more effectively than a
concentrated force OF 10000 or $4,000, upon
which the Spanish commander-in-chief
could at once mass greater numbers,
equipped with superior armament.
General Weyler's policy of eXtermina-
ton and devastation is nothing short of
the almost insane working of an ignorant
and completely unbalanced mind. To kill
peaceful people on the technicality hat
they have neglected to obey the order to
leave their homes and take up their resi-
dence in some town where no means of
subsistence exist is inexcusable. To devas-
tate the whole island of Cuba on the plea
that by so doing all supplies will be shut
off from the rebels only demonstrates the
dense ignorance which the Spanish
general is laboring under. The rebels can
get food enough to live on for another ten
years if necessary, while the cattle alone
now roaming wild in the different districts
will supply the insurgents with beef for at
least a couple of years to come.
AS for the foreigners resident in Cuba,
they have but one feeling with regard TO
Weyler's methods of conducting the mill
tary operations. They consider Weyler and
his actions as a reflex of the worst bar
barities of the middle ages, far more brutal,
- .a~
means employed by the Holy Inquisition TO
attain it's ends. And can they be blamed
for passing such judgment on this lend
incarnate in human shape? Is there any
precept advocated by God or man that
j~ustifes the wholesale slaughter of inno-
cent men, women and children on no other
pretext than that they refuse to leave their
homes and willingly submit TO die slowly of
starvation in such places as Weyler may Or
der?
1.-The object of WeyIer's present policy is
to m the Cuban people-a people
composed of some l 2OO. coo whites and 800. 900
negroes or of mixed blood. To kill every
peaceful male "inhabitant of the country is
one of Weyler's methods and TO drive the
women and children into the towns TO die
of hunger is another.
Not in one single case since Consul Cen
eral Lee assumed the duties of the Havana
consulate have any prisoners been accorded
the privileges they are entitled to under the
Spanish-American treaty and protocols.
General Lee states that his efforts to OBJ
tain the full treaty rights for Americans
were invariably thwarted by instructions
emanating from Mr.. Olney in Washington.
IF l may be permitted to give one word
of advice to the people of this great coun-
try, it is to leave Armenia and the Turks TO
be dealt with by the European powers and
attend to their own Armenia, that lies but
a stones throw from their own shores"