The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-06-09
OFFICIALS RE7ICENT
Regarding the Movement Of the
s-... Troops From Tampa. LIZ
ROBUST SPANISH IMAGINATION

Amuses the Officials of the Navy De-
partmcnt-Need of IIurrying Rein
forcements For orDewey-The Mystic ry
of the santiago-Cape Haytion Cable.
and frequent exchange of communica-
tions between the war and navy de-
partments eliminating in visits by
Acting Secretary Allen. Admiral Sicard
and Captain Crowninshield. in person,
to the war department yesterday led
to the belief that either the United
States troops were actually embarking
at Tampa or that the movement Is
about to begin. The officials, however,
while not absolutely ignorant them
selves as to what was going on at
Tampa, were all under an injunction,
delivered by Secretary Alger himself.
to keep the troop movements absolutely
secret There were intimations that
took away In measure the disappoint-
ment occasioned by this attitude. to the
effect that once the troops are ashore
there will be a considerable relaxation
of the rules now so rigldly enforced
relative to the giving out of informa-
tion as to the armys movements.
The robust imagination displayed in
the Spanish bulletin recounting the
killing of 1.500 of SIMPSONS men dur
ing Mondays fight with the forts Of
Santiago caused good deal of amuse-
ment at the navy department and tie
officers profess themselves, though will
ing to meet the Spanish with arms, to
be utterly unable to contend with them
in the field of mendacity. To some of
them this bulletin recalled vividiy the
stirring bulletins issued almost daily
from the Spanish legation here in tn,
days Of Senior de LONE telling how the
Spaniards. with the loss of one man,
had managed to annihilate the Cuban
army.
The navy department is very busy
in arranging details for the Manila OK
pedition. and by the end of the week
there will be sufficient military force
afloat to enable Admiral Dewey, when
1t reaches him, to do pretty much as he
pleases at Manila. This is an object
very much at heart just now. for fully
recognizing the good military qualities
displayed by the insurgents, according
to the newspaper reports, in their COM
bats around Cavite, the officials are
loath to rely entirely upon them for
any length Of time, fearing relapse
on their part into savagery that might
startle the civilized world.
The Japanese are the latest to turn
up with applications for permission to
study the technical features of the
present war and yesterday Secretary
A Iran t.I
Commander Ketsuro Narila of the
impera! Japanese navy, and Lieuten-
ant sancyuki Akiyama to go with the
army of occupation of Cuba.
There is considerable mystery con-
cerning the reported cutting of cables
running out of Cuba, and the contin-
uance of cable service from that ISL
and. IT has been positively established |
that the French cable running from
Santiago to Cape Haytien went out of |
service last Friday and remained out |
of working condition until Saturday. |
There Is little doubt the interruption |
was due to the work of the cable cut
ting ship sent out by General Greedy, |
and in charge of signal service officers
But the mystery of the affair is that
'iiS fiehSH Napie pS6eh "oihliS again
on Saturday. How this came about |
is beyond explanation by the best cable
experts. The French cable company Is
as much in the dark on this roint as
are the authorities here. All that the
knows is that it could not do |
business from the Sd to the 4th inst.
1t is apparent that the cable was not
cut else it could not have resumed SER
vice. At the same time nothing short
Of a cutting can account for the COM
plete Gripping of the cable on the 3D.
The matter Is further complicated by
reports reaching the officials here that
the cable again stopped working at
midnight of Monday.