The Portland daily press., 1898-03-04
ESPECIAL TO THE rnEss.1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF war;
ESPECIAL TO THE PREss.1
Washington, March 8. The cause Of
the loss of the battleship Maine continues
to be yelled in mystery. The board of in
ouiry are making the faithful and dis
eliminating investigation which the CO.
casion demands, and the members are
very properly keeping entirely still as
to what that investigation is yielding
Neither the President nor the Secretary of
the Navy know anything more about ii
than is known by the public Only the
Sensational papers are perfectly sure OF
the causes, and no two Of them are sure
of the same things, and no one of them
Is sure Of the same thing all tho time.
Yet certain things are gradually cropping
out which cannot help causing consider
able doubt as to the accident theory.
There seems to be no doubt that the ma
val officers who are now in the vicinity
of Key West believe generally that the
Maine was blown up by some machtna-
tions in the harbor of Havana. These
officers have no access to the testimony
given before the court of inquiry; bat
they do have one very important source
of information, which is entitled to con-
siderable weight. This officers OF the
Maine who escaped are telling their
stories to the court Of inquiry, and SO
far as the press and public are concerned,
are then keeping entirely quiet But
nothing can keep these officers from
talking confidentially with their ac-
quaintances and friends among the off
GERS Of other vessels. This is necessary
and inevitable. So it happens that there
are two courts Of inquiry in operation,
one official and the other unofficial. The
unofficial court has only the testimony OF
| those who were on the vessel at the time
know any of the important evidence fur
nished by the divers. In this respect,
therefore, the unofficial court is not Who'll
| ly trustworthy. Yet it's conclusions are
entitled to considerable weight. And 1t
may be said that very generally the ma
val officers at Key West believe that the
probabilities are overwhelmingly against
the theory that the Maine was blown up
from accidental causes. This informa-
ton has gradually leaked out In one way
and another, and has done much to cause,
even among very conservative persons, q
belief in the completely of some persons
| in Havana with the explosion.
Of course 1t should be borne in mind
that the disposition Of the average naval
officer is predisposed from the start
against the accident theory. For they
are all proud Of their profession, and do
not wish to believe that SO fine ship
could meet such complete disaster from
an accident On the other hand these Off
GERS are in a position to weigh and ana
I'VE the reasons given for believing the
! explosion an accident, and they show
that many of these reasons are based on
sur position rather than on any condi-
tions that existed on the Maine.
| The officers do not believe that Captain
Blanco or any Of the officials Of the gov
ernment at Havana had anything to do
| with 1t. Blanoo's object ia to keep Cuba
for Spain, by force, by bribery or by any
other means that ingenuity can invent.
And he would as soon think of suicide as
to think of affronting the United States
by an act that would be very sure to re-
suit in sweeping this Spaniard from Cuba
| forever.
But as has been SO often pointed ont,
| BIanco is not trusted or liked by the Wey-
lerites in Cuba, that is by the pro Span.
ish party, to which the reckless young
volunteers of Havana belong. This lat
| ter class both hate the United States and
at the same time are prepared to shelter
| themselves beneath our protection. They
know that if Gomez and Garcia succeed
the Spanish party will have as short
shrift in Cuba as the Tories had in the
United States at the close Of the Revolu-
tionary war. Believing that Spanish
power is collapsing, and that the insur-
gents will soon be triumphant, they
would like to provoke Intervention from
the United States in order that there may
be "a strong hand in the island when the
anarchy of the Spanish collapse comes
/ 1t is said by those who ought to know