The record-union., 1898-04-12

predecessor made an effort to bring
about peace through the mediation
of this Government in any way that
might tend to an honorable adjustment
of the contest between Spain and her
revolving colony on the basis of some
effective scheme of self government for
Cuba under the flag and sovereignty
Of SPAIN 1t failed, through the re-
fusal Of the Spanish Government then
in power to consider any form of me-
diation or indeed any plan of settle
ment which did not begin with the
actual submission of the insurgents to
/ the mother country, and then only on
such terms as Spain herself might see
fit to grant
The war continued unabated. The re-
sistance of the insurgents was in no
wise diminished. The efforts of Spain
were increased, both by the dispatch
of fresh levies to Cuba and by the ad-
dition to the horrors of the strife.
INHUMAN PHASE OF THE WAR.
The new and inhuman phase. happily
unprecedented in the modern history of
| civilized Christian people, the policy of
devastation and concentration, inaug-
urated by the Captain Generals bando
Pinar Del Rio. was then extended to
embrace all of the island to which the
power of the Spanish arms was able to
reach by occupation or by military
operations. The peasantry, including all
dwellers in the open agricultural in
terror, We're driven into the garrison
towns or isolated places held by the
troops. The raising and movement Of
nrOViSi0DS of al kinds Ivpra iptardirth6
The fields were laid waste. dwellings
unroofed and fired, mills destroyed and
in short, everything that could desolate
the land and render it unfit for human
habitation or support was commanded
by one or other of the contending par
ties and executed by all the powers at
their disposal
BY the time the present Administra-
tion took office year ago. reconcentra-
been made effective
over the better part of the four central
and western provinces-Santa Clara.
Matanzas, Havana and Pinar Del Rio.
The agricultural population, to the es
timated number of 800. 900 or more. was
herded within the towns and their i'm
mediate vicinity, deprived of the means
of support, rendered destitute of shelter,
left poorly clad and exposed to the most
unsatisfactory conditions.
MISERY AND STARVATION.
AS the scarcity of food increased with
the devastation of the dcpopulated areas
Of production, destitution and want be-
came misery and starvation. Month by
month the death rate increased in
alarming ratio until March, 1898, ac-
cording to conservative estimates. from
official Spanish sources, the mortality
among the reconcentrados from starva-
ton and the disease thereto incident,
exceeded fifty per centum Of their total
number.
No practical relief was accorded to the
the destitute. The over-burdened
towns, already suffering from the gen
eral dearth. could give no aid. So-called
zones of cultivation. established within
the Immediate area OF effective mill
tary control about the cities and forti-
| fled camps proved illusory as remedy
for the suffering. The unfortunates.
! being for the most part women and
children. aged and helpless men, en-
feebled by disease and hunger, could not
have titled the soil without tools, seeds
! or shelter, for their own support or for
the supply OF the cities
WAR OF DIFFERENTIATION.
Recommendation adopted avowedly as
war measure, in order to cut off the
resources of the insurgents, worked its
predestined result AS | said in my
message of last December, it was not
civilized warfare, it was determination.
The only peace it could beget was that
of the wilderness and the grave.
! INSURGENTS HOLD THEIR OWN.
/ Meanwhile the military situation in
/ CONTINUED on Seventh Page)