The age-herald., 1898-11-23
SPAN|ARDS ARE
 NON-PLUSSED Do Het Know How to Answer
 American Terms. IA DIFFERENCE OF OPINION As to How the Commissioners
 Will Now Proceed. WILL DECLINE OFFER OF MONEY t>
 Ss And Probably Refuse to Negotiate the
 Protocol Further. RIOS HIGHLY sEXASPERATED His Display of Feeling and Utterances
And Probably Refuse to Negotiate the
 Protocol Further.
RIOS HIGHLY EXASPERATED
His Display of Feeling and Utterances However, Not Wholly Approved by His Spanish Colleagues
 May Not Meet Today.

Paris, November 22.-The Spanish peace commissioners last night teegraphed to Madrid the substance of the United States memorandum presented yesterday, and late in the evening they were discussing it among themselves. As late as 1 o'clock this morning a Spanish commissioner af- firmed that he and his colleagues did not know what to do regarding the American offer.
 There is difference of opinion among unofficial people near the commissioners, 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 may take the archipelago because you have the power to do so. As you ad- vance we will retire, protesting against greedy aggression. We will faithfully car ry out our protocol pledges, and leave Cuba and Porto Rico in your hands. You ca7re here to engage in a discussion under the terms of the protocol, but you evidently meant when drawing up that document to provide a conference in which, though we differ man to man, you proposed to an- nounce at the proper time what ycps vii! do, whether we agree to it or object. Such an attitude robs the conference of nego- tiative character and sets up the United States as a dominant power, whose first purpose is to listen, but whose ultimate de- termination is to do it's own will"
 As a matter of fact Senor Montero Rios is reported to have used virtually such language and arguments as the foregoing.
 Rios Highly Exasperated
 He said more, even indicating a high de- gree of exasperation at the American offer of $2O,0OO,0OO. His manner, no less than his words, betrayed 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 yesterdays session. The utterances later of a Spaniard of im- portance, whose name is withheld for the present. indicates another line of action, a treaty cession of the Philippines. Suppose said the speaker in question, 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 ultimatum. We must sub- init 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 a conquest from a helpless people, We yield, but we decline $20 O00 GOO for property of which valua- ton was neither asked nor received. You have your will. We trust you will not continue the war upon our helplessness because, forsooth, we decline your s2O 0O0,- 0OO Surely this waiver by us of your money will not provoke further use of arms against Spain.
 Not Stolen or Pawned
 "we sign, we cede, we are dumb. It is finished and we may be permitted to re- tain the feeling of assuring our people and national creditors that we have not at least stolen and sold territory we had pawned."
 It is said today that Senor Montero Rios, president of the Spanish commission at the conference yesterday, remarked after hay- ing heard the American offer, that if the vital portions had been read the Spaniards could answer it instantly, but as the memo randum was very long, they would defer their answer until Wednesday, adding that it would be easily possible to make it within forty-eight hours.
 On the other hand, 1t is said the Span iards cannot justify themselves before their people and others by throwing away s20,000,- 0OO added to the inevitable loss of the Phil- ippine islands.
 The Gaulois today says: "The commits sions being divided into an equal number of voices on the subject of the cession or the retention of the archipelago. recourse to arbitration is absolutely necessary and legal. The Americans. nevertheless, refuse to do so, and attribute to themselves sover- eighty over the Philippines without the consent of the conference. They therefore themselves tear up the protocol they had imposed upon the vanquished, and to keep
 
 tContinued on Second Page.1
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