Arizona republican., 1898-03-18
The United States Will Receive
 no Idemnity.
A SEMI OFFICIAL UTTERANCE
A Hint That Intervention in
 Cuba Means War
In Further Anticipation Of an Out break Orders Were Given Yes- terday for the Form e ton of a Souadron at Hampton Roads.

Washington, March 17.-The event of the day in official circles was the is suing of an order for the formation of a new squadron of naval vessels to be stationed at Hampton Roads. The squadron in the beginning will con sist of five ships, all the best of their types Two of them, the battleships Massachusetts and Texas, are with drawn from the present North Atlantic fleet at Key West and the Tortugas.
 In ordering this movement the navy department is not animated by any purpose of yielding to the representa- tions or intimations that may have come from the Spanish minister. On the contrary, the new sqadrOn was brought about by a purely strategic consideration, although it appears from the nature of the force so far under Roads, that this strategy is of de- fensive nature. The new squadron cannot be called the Flying squad ron" because the association of the heavy battleships with fleet cruisers like the Brooklyn, Columbia and Min neapolis reduces the available speed of the whole to the speed of the slowest vessels, and the squadron could not do much flying" in a naval sense. The indications rather are that when rein forced by some of the smaller cruisers the squadron will constitute an ideal naval defense.
 The Spanish minister called at the state department at 3 o'clock and re- mained with Judge Day something over an hour Both parties to the con- ference were extremely reserved at it's conclusions. It is understood, how ever, that it developed no new phases, but was a general talk in which pacific assurances were exchanged and a hopeful view of the situation expressed. At that time the naval orders taking the battleships Texas and Massa- chusetts from Key West and assigning them to the fleet at Hampton Roads was not known at the state depart men, so the minister was not officially informed of the fact. He heard it later and was naturally much gratified as the gradual strengthening at Key West had been the subject of grave apprehension by the Spanish govern ment
 A semi-official statement given out at Madrid advising the government that demand for indemnity based on Spanish responsibility for the Maine explosion would be indignantly re- pelled by Spain, attracted much inter est in official circles. There has been little doubt for some time that Spain was preparing for the contingency of an adverse report by the American court of inquiry and to that end was preparing to anticipate and offset it by making clear that government s policy of standing by the report of the Spanish commission. The report of the latter body was due in Madrid yesterday, and while it's conclusions are not officially known, it is a fore gone conclusion that it will find that the Maine disaster was due to an ac- cident resulting in an internal ex- plosion.
 This was foreshadowed in the ad- vance utterances of Captain Peral, the head of the Spanish commission, who stated publicly several days ago that the theory of an external explosion was untenable. Along with the semi official statement from Madrid that a demand for indemnity will be indig- nantly repelled, is the further state ment from reliable sources that Spain has made it clear to the. authorities here that intervention in Cuban affairs may lead to war.