Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1898-04-16
CUBAN HORRORS.
Narrowing Story Told in the Con-
sular Correspondence.
Starvation and Murder the Fate of Thou
sands of Reconcentrndcs-New Ar
rivals In Havana "Ditch" Kept
for Eight Days without
Morscl of Food.

Washington, April 12.-The CONSUL
ar correspondence with regard to the
situation in Cuba which was trans
mitted yesterday was prepared in re-
sponse to resolutions of inquiry
adopted by both the house and SEN
ate. The correspondence was prepar-
ed for transmission to congress just
before the blowing up of the Maine
and having been held up since, now
includes communications up to April
1. 1t covers the communications of
Consul General Lee at Havana, Con-
sui McGarr at Cienfugos, Consul
Brice, ut Matanzas and Consul Hyatt
at Santiago de Cuba.
The communications make about
10000 words. They deal largely with
the distress and suffering which eX-
lists in all the districts. But Gen. Lee
reports quite fully upon the DEGREES
of the government with regard to au-
tonomy and other political phases of
the situation. In preparing the cor
respondence for transmission to con-
gress considerable portions of the inn
portant communications, and especi-
ally those marked confidential, are
omitted.
Gen. Lees correspondence runs
over the period from November II,
1897, tn April l, 1898. Much of the
correspondence is of confidential ma
ture and of some of the important
communications excerpts only are
given.
1t was on November 23 that Consul
General Lee made his first report to
the department of state on the condi-
ton of affairs in Cuba. 1t is as fol-
lows:
Sir: / have the honor to briefly
submit a statement of what appears
to be the present condition of affairs
in this island.
First-The insurgents will not ac-
cept autonomy.
Second-A large majority of the
Spanish subjects, who have CONNER
cial and business interests and own
property here. will not accept auton-
Cmy, but prefer annexation to the
United States, rather than an inde-
pendent republic or genuine auton-
omy, under the Spanish flag.
November 81, Gen. Lee sent to the
department the communications of
two gentlemen whose names he says
are suppressed for obvious reasons,
but whom he knows personally as
standing high in the community. con-
cerning the condition in Los Fosos
| (the ditches) in Havana. The COM
municatiOn says among other things:
400 women and children thrown on
the ground heaped pell neil as ami
mails, some in dying condition, 9TH
ers sick, others dead, without the
slightest cleanliness or the least help,
not even able to give water to the
thirsty, without either religious or So
cial help, each one dying wherever
chance laid him."
| The communication goes on to
state that the deaths among these re-
concentrates averages 40 or so daily
and that on an average there were
but ten days of life for each person.
1t says that these unhappy creatures
received food only after having been
eight days in the fosos, during which
| time they were obliged to subsist
upon the bad food which the dying
had refused. Among the many
deaths we saw" says the communica-
| ton, there was seen one impossible
to forget. There is still alive the only
witness, young girl of Is whom we
found seemingly lifeless on the
ground. On her right side was the
body of a young motker, cold and
rigid but with her young child still
alive clinging to her breast. On her
left side was the corpses OF a dead
woman holding her son in a dead en-
brace. a little further on a dying wo-
man, having in her arms a daughter
of IA, crazy with pain, she, after 12 or
IA days died in spite of the care she
received"
Further along the communication
says that if any young girl came in
| who was nice looking she was infal.
! libly condemned to the most abomin.
able of traffics. The communication
says that 1,7OO persons had entered
the fosos since August and of those
but 243 were then living.