The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-03

was the third day since the president
delivered to NJ. Cambon the terms Of
! fered by the United States to Spain as
! a basis of peace, no answer came from
Madrid, and, in fact, was scarcely eX-
/ pected. The press reports of the lo2g
cabinet meetings held at the Spanish
capital yesterday indicated that the
] Spanish cabinet was unpreDared at
] least to accept the terms offered at
/ once and without appearing to attempt
/ to secure some modification in the in
teresu of Spain.
J 1t is felt that such a course is abso-
! lutely imposed upon the Sagasta min
istry by the existing conditions in Ma
drid. Nevertheless, it is not. to be seen
flat the president cherished the slight
est intention of consenting to any es-
seLtial notifications of the conditions.
and the slight delay that has occurred
in making answer is not believed to be
discouraging nor to be taken as a sig-.
OF the purpose of the Spanish cabinet
ultimately to reject the proposition.
When the doors of the state depart
ment closed this afternoon, it was real
lied that owing to the difference of time
between Washington and Madrid there
was little chance of receiving the ex-
pected answer before tomorrow, and,
indeed, should it come tonight the
French ambassador would not be able
to deliver it, because the time required
I for its transmission would make the
hour too late, and the announcement
could not be made until tomorrow.
CABINET SESSION.
The cabinet session today, which had
promised to be important. in view of
the pending peace propositions, proved
70 be uneventful. 1t occupied an hour
and ten minutes, but most of the time
was devoted to a statement, subse-
orently given to the press, briefly sum-
marizing the terms of peace. Aside
from the discussion of this statement,
which was carefully drawn and scruti-
niZed line by line by the members of
the cabinet with usual Drecaution for
diplomatic reasons, the meeting was
devoted largely to talking over minor
war details.
Informal exchange in views of indi-
vidual members during the meeting in
dtcated a strong belief in peace, though
no word of any kind had yet come from
the Spanish government.
One. member of the cabinet, after the
meeting, said he expected the Spanish
reply to this government would be
made some day this week, but that
when peace could be made operative is
predetermined, and might require two
months o. more.
The session vas marked by an alb
sence of news from the front in any di-
rection.
THE CUBAN CLAIMS.
It is understood to be the present in
tention of the administration to as
sumo all liability for all the claims
presented by American citizens against
Spain, on account of injury to personal
property in Cuba. Some part of this
liability may be imposed upon the gov
eminent of Cuba later on, when that
shall have been established, and to in
clude such cases as can be directly
charged up against the insurgents,
where they have destroyed the proper
ty of American citizens in the course of
their operations. This assumption by
the victorious nation, of liability for
peace conditions, is rather in the line
of usual practice. At the conclusion of
the Mexican war, the United States as /
sumed all such claims in behalf of
American citizens and established
special tribunal for their payment. The
same course was nursued in 1919, in eff
feeting a settlement Of the Florida /
troubles with Spain, though the deci |
sions announced by the special tribu !
nal were a source Of litigation and ne !
gotiation clear down TO the present /
time. The amount Of these claims |
against Spain in behalf of Americans |
" io SuiIeISu III OGDt N saS @1o,VoV,VVV eI
the date of the destruction of the bat |
tleship Maine 1t is estimated that this !
total has been increased to $50, 900, 900 |
since that time, and no. doubt is enter |
tanned that there are many other |
claims of large amounts that have not |
yet been presented.
Of course, it is not possible now
to indicate what proportion of the !
claims are justly chargeable to the acts
of the Cuban insurgents, and it is
known that in many cases the claim
ants themselves were unable to tell /
the source of damage to their property,
by Spanish troops or the in
surgents.