Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-02-10
THAT De LONE LETTER
Spanish Minister Declines
to Deny Its Authorship.
STATE DEPART MENT ACTS
Unless the or :ndins Diplomat Is Prompil,
Recall. Il by His Government, Uncle
Sam VIII Give Him IIis
Passports. .....
IBy Te!eEraluh.l

(By Te!egraph)
| WASiihES1OCN. VeF,. e.-The publlca-
ton in the morning newspapers of what
f,u;lpOrtszls to BE un autograph letter,
written try Senior Dupuy de LONE, tbs
| Spanish minister. to his friend Canale-
Jas. criiicizing tbs President with the
| ue.nost treyIofn. caused Il s. nSaton in
o'tio.al Washington and soon viii be
| Followed by Minister de Lome'S depart
ure from the United States. AT the cut
st there was q disposition to question
| the authenticity of the letter, but as
bit by bit the the circudns tantial evil
dence accumulated until it was finally
announced officially that the minister
declined to deny the authorship Of the
.etter. all Ioubt was dissipat. i and the
only question that remained was as to
the line Of action to be pursued by our
government toward the offending min
ister. The writing OF this letter is I'M
| questionably an offense against the
amenities Of diplomatic relations and
| such cf.enses almost invariably have
| E=en regarded in the Untei' States as
sufficient ground for the termination OF
the official status of the iettvr-writer.
| AS soon as the letter uIloe AIRED In the
press, the state department officials be
gan an effort to settle its authenticity
and when they had earned all that
could be developed on this point and
haa been told that the minister h:mseh
refused to deny writing it, the consid-
| Stalioii u Tie next step DSSaD.
! Assistant Secretary Day was in con
su!tatlon with the President on the sub
| Ject at least four times during the of
| iicial day and tbs n spent much time in
| framing his message to United States
| Minister Wcodford. at Madrid. The Of
tic.ai statement of the sending of this
| message was accompanied by a ieclina-
ton to indicate its contents at this time,
! the department merely giving to the
| press the following statement:
| Minister de Lone does not deny
| writing the letter TIis department has
| communicated with Genera! Woodford
on the subject. Until that communion
tion reaches the Spanish government 1t
| would he improper to in any manner
| state the contents of the ms ssage to
| General Woodford."
Wht!e the department refused to add
anything to this meaEre announcement
lit ean be stated without question that
Mr.. Woodiford was directed to lay the
facts developed before the Spanish gov
I erEsneaass tegsta1eE with, the statement
tnat IN ViSw of the ministers refusal to
deny the authorship of TIL. letter the
spanish government is looked to with
eehlldenee to deal with the case prop
recall the nImh2iAtafs t2 an invitation to
himself has not already taken steps Is
vacate his position. No doubt is enter
| taint d OF compliance with the implied
sussc stion but in case there should be
| unG,Ie delay in acting the state Depart
| ment would feel called upon to movt
| directly in the matter and, give the min
| lister his passports. as was done when
Sir Julian Pauncefote's predecessor
| wrote the celebrated Nurchison letter.
The circumstances under which q let
| ter OF this character couAi' escape from
! the privacy Of the two persons between
| WHOM it passed .=Ncites much comment
| Inc general VI lief is that 1t was never
| delivered to Senior CannlejaS, but was
stolen white en- route. Canalejas was in
| washington SOME months ago, and tn n
! vent to Cuba for the purpose of ubserv-
| ing TIE condition OF affairs there. A g
| former minister in LIB raj cabinets
| having been minister of juStice-and as
| the editor of VEL Heraido at Madrid, he
was accorded, warm reception by Min
| lister Dupuy DE- LONE. who gave q ban
quet in his honor which was attended
by rflmber of prominent public men.
| He then left for Cuba, and his mission
| necessarily brought him into continued
| correspondence with Minister de Lone
AS the .etter bears no date, the time
| that it was forwarded can only b.. fixed
by the context. That it was after tbs
| Presidents message is evident The
mention of the approaching autonomous
| cabinet establishes that it was before
the Inauguration of the cabinet. Lanu-
ery l. This places the letter according
| to the prevailing impression, as having
| oeen written about the m;i.:Ee Of Ee-
| csEr:hs I. at this time Senior Canalejas
| Is un'LGrstood to have been at Havana.
| prosecuting his mission. The handling
OF the mail is done 10y the Spanish au-
thorltles. SO that in this Ease it is be
| lievsd the loss of letter of this char
acter could occur only in on,= of two
Ways-elther through treachery of an
| phflciai at the postal service or by beina,
taken after it had REACHED the hote!
where Senior Canaiejas was stopping
me rule .afi' down in the Sackville
| case is generally r. salded as the stand
| ard precedent for our guidance in such
matters. though there are not lacking
| otter precedsnts. To plead that the eft
Ter was purely personal. that it was not
even addressed to an official or to cit
zen or the United States will not suf-
hce. Lord Sackville set UP such an ex-
cuse, but President Cleveland declared
tHat 1t was insufficient and the minister
| was compelled to .eave Washington.
lnasmuch as the line of action in
that case may form the basis for action
IN TINS, always presumng that the Span
ISM minister does not himself cut the
Knot and relieve the government from
Ine necessity OF performing a disagreea-
bie duty. 1t may be stated that with
Lord Sackvilie the department of state
itself initiated the action.
| Lord Sackvlle had written a letter
70 one Murchison in Pomona, Ca, in
| o'SS', AZ lehly 10 his request
Tor guidance, as naturalizsd Ameri-
can OF British birth, in casting his vote
for Pr sident. The reply was sent from
| beVerly, Mass, where the minister was
stepping, and wct!ld not now. nor prob
! ANY at any time except in the "hSat of
one OF the great four-yt arly elections,
De regarded as particularly offensive
His lordsh!p simply said that any polit-
lea party which openly favored the
mother country at tina time would lose
popularity and the party then in power
was Well aware OF this fact. He be-
| heVsd, however. that President CleVe-
| land would manifest a spirit of conoili-
alton in dealing with the questions in
| voiVt-' in his message. Upon seeing this
letter printed. Secretary Rayard sent for
Lord Sackvi.le and the latter frankly
confessed the authorship. TheIeupon
MIR. Bayard cabled to Mr.. Phelps, our
minister at London. under date of Octo-
her 26, that Lord Sackville' had de-
clared that his reply to Murcbson had
been strictly private and not intended