The Mena star., 1898-05-18
Conference at the War Department About Assigning Gen. Merritt
 More Regulars for Manila.
GENERA MAY HAVE MADE 4 MISTAKE.
The London Times Thinks the spanish Ad- miral Has Lost Prestige In Visiting Gura- cao-Adm. Dewey Thinks If He Had the i Apparatus He Could Raise Some of the sunken Spanish Gunboats.


 WASHINGTON, May 17.-Col. R. P. Hughes, inspector general, with head quarters at New York city, was at the war department to-day on a mission from Gen. Merritt in connection with the assignment of regular troops to accompany the Philippine expedition soon to start from San Francisco. Gen. Merritt's preference for larger number of regulars than 1t was pro- posed by the department to give him has been known here for some time, and his views on that subject are shared by many of the army officials They real ize that Gen. Merritt will have deli cate and important duty to perform as military governor of the Philippines and they agree in expressing the opin- ion that the general should have an adequate and we'll disciplined force at his command to maintain order in city that will be filled with discordant clements. There are not enough regu- lars in the west to furnish the number that Gen. Merritt thinks should be sent on the expedition and consequently Secretary Alger and the department officials have been considering the ad- visibility of withdrawing about three of the infantry regiments from Tampa, where large number are now rem dezvoused and of dispatching them post haste to the Pacific coast Gen. Greedy. chief signal officer, is making arrangements to send a detachment of six officers and 55 men, made up large ly of telegraph operators and cleo tricians, to accompany the Philippine expedition.
 carvera May Have Made a Mistake.
 LONDON, May 1.-The London Times said this morning:
 It cannot be denied that Adm. Cervera has lost prestige in visiting Curacao He is now most disad vantageouSly placed for any at- tempt at mischief on the seaboard of the United States, and if there were ever thoughts of going to the Pacific it has been wasted time. Our own belief is that Adm. Cerveras ambi- ton is limited to keeping his fleet in being Certainly 1t looks as if of all strategical moves at his disposal, this is not the one which prom ises at the best, some initial success, to be dearly paid for in any event by subsequent collapse
 The mystery surrounding the move ucutS o4 tuc OpdulSn ueebS iS Helu ncTc to show that the science of naval scouting is still in it's infancy. The London Morning Post asks rather ironically:
 What have the American swift cruisers been ioing since the commencement of the warY Apart from the single possibility Of Cervera's efforts proving successful. more inaptitude has never been displayed than in the present war. The failure of the beautiful mercantile cruis- CTS on both sides is calculated to support the opinions Of those who think the money expend- a in England in suhsidizing cruisers might De much better employed.
 May Raise Spanish Gunboats
 CHIcAGo, May 17.--A special to the Journal from Washington says: It is stated that in his last cable Adm. Dewey said that if wrecking appara- tus were sent him he would be able to raise number of the Spanish war ships sunk during the battle. The ad- miral thinks there are several of the gunboats which can be easily raised, repaired and made useful. In view of this the war department has been has, tening the preparations to dispatch the transports now on the Pacific coast to Manila and they are expected to leave San Francisco by Thursday.