Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-11-24
OUR DEMANDS ON SPAIN
Talk Of Refusing Our Offer Of
Twenty Million Dollars.
BUT sPANIARDs WILL NOT FIGHT

"You May Take the Archipelago Be-
cause You Have the Power to DO
So We VIII Retire Protesting
Against Greedy Aggression
Paris, Nov. 23.-The Spanish peace
commissioners have sent to Madrid the
substance of the United States memo-
randum presented on Monday. and a
Spanish commissioner affirmed yester-
day that he and his colleagues did not
know what to do regarding the Ameri-
can offer. There is a difference of opin-
ion among unofficial people near the
commissions but the prediction Is made
that Spain will decline the American
offer of money, that she will refuse to
cede the Philippines and will say to
the United States:
You make take the archipelago be-
cause you have the power to do so. AS
you advance we win retire. protest.
Ing against greedy aggression. We will
faithfully carry out our protocol
pledges and leave Cuba and Porto
Rico in your hands. You came here
to engage in discussion under the
terms of the protocol. but you evidently
meant when drawing up that documen.
to provide a conference in which,
though we differ man to man, you pro-
posed to announce at the proper time
what you will do, whether We agree to
it or object. Such an attitude robs
the conference of a negotiative char
acter and sets up the United States
as dominant power whose first pur-
pose is to listen. but whose ultimate
determination is to do its own WILL"
AS a matter of fact Senior Montere
Rios Is reported to have used virtually
such language and arguments as the
foregoing. He said more, even indicat-
ing high degree of evaporation at
the American offer of $20O0O,0 900. His
manner, no less than his words. betray-
ed his repugnance. His display of
feeling and utterances, however, are
not wholly approved by his Spanish
colleagues, who did not hesitate to
say as much after Mondays session.
Utterances later by Spaniard of
Importance, whose name is withheld
for the present, indicate another line
Of action, treaty cession of the Phil
ippines.
Suppose" said the speaker in ques-
ton, that Spain says to the United
States, We are exhausted We have
no funds with which to continue the
war. We do not want to continue 1t,
and we cannot. You serve us with an
ultimatum. We must submit to your
power. Prepare your treaty, and when
you want us to sign we will sign. We
must bend to physical force. You have
the Antilles and you will possess the
Philippines as conquest from help.
less people.
eve yield, but we decline $40, 900, 900
for property of which our valuation
was not asked nor respected. You have
your will. We trust that you will not
continue the war upon our helplessness,
because, forsooth, we decline your $780,
100000. Surely this waver by us Of
your money will not provoke a further
use of arms against Spain.
We sign, we cede, we are dumb. 1T
is finished and we may be permitted
to retain the privilege of assuring our
people and our national creditors that
we at least have not stolen and resold
territory we had pawned.
Should Spain cede by treaty or. on the
other hand, should she refuse and break
off the negotiations here her protests
will embody some such declaration as
this.
AS against such sentiments it is ar
gued that the business in hand is work
for grown men, and that it would be
childish folly to refuse $40, 1000, 900, and
that the Spanish government could not
justify such a refusal before the Span
ish people or the public creditors of
Spain, a deliberate throwing away of
$20,0OO,OO0 in addition to the loss of the
Philippines.
Monday night the Spanish commits
sioners sent the American proposition
by a special messenger to Madrid,
where it will arrive today 1t is felt
that the Spanish government must now
answer the American ultimatum; but
as it is not likely that the answer of
Madrid will arrive today in time for
the commissioners to formulate their
reply to the Americans, it is probable
that the joint meeting will be deferred
to a day later in the week.