The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-07

ford, q somewhat unusual procedure,
as the common mode of requesting the
withdrawal of a minister or consul
is through the representative or the
government making the request, which
In this case Is Senior du Bose, the
Spanish charge d'affaires. Senior du
Bcsc has received no instruction on the
subject, and was In complete ignorance
of the demands made through Minister
WoodforG.
Not War Vessels.
The other suggestion Of the Spanish
government-that relief supplies should
not be sent by war veSSels-did not
come through Minister Woodford, as
the Madrid dispatches state, but was
presented by Senior du Bose to the state
department last Friday. The responses
In both cases went direct to Minister
WCodford. There was no loss Of time,
however, in assembling a special ses-
sion Of the cabinet or even in any gen
eral conference between the president
and his cabinet advisers individually.
In the protest against the Montgomery
and Nashville, Judge Day conferred
with Secretary Long, who, In turn,
called in Capt Crowninshield, OF the
bureau of navigation. There appears
to be no reason why a change should
be made in the plan for sending these
ships on the relief mission, and, without
attaching grave significance to the re-
quest of the Spanish government, the
answer was made that the plans for
the trip were completed, and that the
stay of the ships would be brief and OF
the most pacific character
In responding to the request for Gen.
T nn, ha ".
pear to have deemed the subject open
to such discussion as would require the
views Of his cabinet associates, and,
after a brief exchange between the
White house and the state department,
the negative answer was dispatched to
Minister Woodford. One phase of the
incident that tends to show the firm
stand taken by the administration is
the expedition with which the action
was accomplished. Such a matter or
dinarily is laid before the cabinet. the
views of all it's members personally
given and the fullest opportunity af-
forded for discussion. But in this case
the Associated Press bulletin furnished
to some members of the cabinet the
first information they had that Gen.
Lees service was open to question. Be-
fore the cabinet meeting no hint or
complaint Of any kind relating to Gen.
Lee had been made.
The Reasons.
The grounds on which Gen Lees re-
call is asked are not officially disclosed.
1t is known, however, that the Spanish
government has chafed for some time
over Gen. Lees presence in Havana,
although this had never taken the form
Of a definite protest prior to the present
time. 1t began to assume a more
serious aspect shortly after the arrival
of the Maine at Havana. At that time
Gen. Lee escorted Capt. Sigsbee on his
round Of official calls.
These were made with due formality,
but the Spanish officials took offense
when their calls were restricted to Gen.
Blanco, Admiral Manterola and the
representatives Of the military arm of
Spain's service, and did not include
Premier GalveZ and his associates in
the autonomous cabinet, who represent
the new civil regime which Spain is
seeking to enforce. The matter came
to the attention of Senor Dupuy de
LONE. then Spanish minister at Wash
ington. and, although there was NO
statement given out, the situation
doubtless was made known to the state
department., as suitable amends were
made by Capt. Sigebee calling on DR..
Congosto, the civil secretary general,
Premier Galvez and his associates.
-
given by Consul General Lee to the
officers Of the Maine. The list Of guests
on that occasion is said to have omitted
some of the Spanish naval officers, and
to have included quite conspicuously
the names of number Of American
newspaper correspondents who were re-
garded by the Spanish officials at Ha.
vana as antagonistic to them.
This also came to the attention of
the officials here, but was not made the
basis for any action, but rather of un-
official Spanish criticism of Gen. Lees
general mode of procedure.
Complete Surprise.
Within recent days it has been under
stood by officials here that the feeling
against Gen. Lee has been smoothed
over, and the request for his recall
was for that reason in the nature of.
complete surprise. There are circun-
stances, however. which clearly dis
close the grounds for the recall al
though 1t is not known that Spain has
made any exact specification of COM
plant. Since the Maine disaster q re-
port has been circulated that Gen.
Lee held the personal opinion that the
explosion was due to external cause.
No official report of this character was
ever sent to Washington so far as
known. But the mere circulation of the
report at Madrid attributing such
views to Gen Lee has been the source
of much feeling in Spanish official cir
cles.
The press dispatches from Madrid
also disclose that Gen. Lee is held
accountable at the Spanish capital for
the project Of the purchase of Cuba by
the United States from Spain, as well
as for general sentiment of sympathy
toward the insurgents. The sugges-
ton of the impartial, a leading gov
ernment organ, that the next session
Of the cortes will consider the case of
Gen. Lee, shows the strong influences