Evening journal., 1898-10-19
COMMISSIONERS dine
Spaniards andAmericans Meet
at ambassador Porter's.
An EVIDENCE OF GOOD FEELING.
DisprovcS the stories of Spanish
Eauteur - what the Paris Ps-
pers Say on the Cuban
Debt Question.

PARIS, oct 19-General Horace Por-
/ ter. the United States ambassador. gave
banquet last evening at the American
embassy to the United States and Span
+ ish peace commissioners. The banquet
ing room was elaborately hung with
tapestries and armor flowers were in
profusion, and the effects through the
stained glass were very beautiful.
On General Porters right. and in the
order named. were seated Judge w. r..
Day, Senator Cushman x. Davis. SEN
ator William p. Fry, Mr.. Whitelaw
Reid and Senator George Gray, the
United States peace commissioners; Mr..
John Bassett Moore, secretary to the
American commission; Senior Leon
Castillo, the Spanish ambassador tC
France; Senior Abarzuza, Senior Garnica
and General Cerero of the Spanish
peace commission; Marquis de Noval-
las, secretary Of the Spanish embassy;
NJ. Jules Cambon, French ambassador
to the United States; Mr.. Henry Wig
maud, secretary to the United States
embassy In Paris. Mr. Ferdinand w.
Peck, United States commissioner to
the Paris exposition of 1900: Mr. John
X. Gowdy. United States consul gener-
al in Paris; Commander II. b. Bradford,
chief of the United States bureau OF
naval equipment, Professor Benjamin
ID. Woodward, assistant commissioner
to the Paris exposition NJ Brisson, the
French premier, and NJ. Delcasse. the
French minister of foreign affairs.
On General Porter's left in the fol-
lowing order were Mesdames Day. Da-
Wis, Frye Reid, Gray, Moore, Leon
Castillo, Mcclellan, Waddington. Cam
hon, Peck, Gowdy Bradford, Fazande
and Leroy, and Misses Gray, Porter
and Whitton
Senior Dillaurruta. the Spanish un-
dersecretary for foreign affairs and a
member of the Spanish peace commits
sion, was prevented by lndisposition
from being present.
The meeting of the two commissions
at the same table is notable event
here and borrows special interest from
the sempredictlon of the Paris corre-
spondent of the London Times that the
Spanish commissioners would not meet
their opponents at dinner under the
roof Of the American embassy.
There is enough fact in the state
ment of the Gaulois in reference to
the Cuban debt question to give it sig
nifcance, especially as Il came from
Spanish sources here. Taken in con-
nection with the special pleading in
the editorials of the Paris papers last
evening, it affords fair view of the
interest existing here on behalf Of
Spain.
La Liberte, referring to the Cuban
debt as now dividing the two couN-
tries" says:
The Spanish regard the refusal Of
the United States to assume the Cuban
debt as an exaggerated pretention."
In one sentence Ia Liberte declares
that Spanish finances We're ruined in
I trying TO suppress the Cuban insur-
( rection." and in the next it says that
"the debt was contracted for the bene-
fit of Cuba" Then it points to Spain
as pleading for arbitration where the
commissions do not agree and says:
The Washington cabinet will not
listen TO anything We have already
pointed out the abnormal conditions
attending the appointment of the
American delegates and their imperious
instructions. Mr. Day and his coll
leagues are not properly negotiators,
but only mandataries. whose work is
to carry out precise orders. They have
no right to discuss or to make conces-
sions, but simply may announce to the
Spanish government the exactions of
the United States.
THE American commissioners have
formal orders not to lend themselves
to any notifications Of the conditions
Of peace and to repel all arbitration,
giving notice finally, if the Spanish dc
not agree to their terms, of a naval
demonstration i'm Spanish waters. Pres
ident Mckinley is dictated to by pubic
opinion, which will some day repent its
loss OF head.
Madrid now knows that the effort
to induce the United States to assume
any part of the Cuban debt or to re-
nounce the Philippines. wholly or In
part, was doomed i'm advance to fail
ure. Spain has nothing to do but to
give nobly to the hard laws of war, as
a fresh humiliation would be certain TO
follow Senior Sagasta's nonsuccess
against the grasping disposition of the
United States"
The Temps says editorially:
1t Is still thought that a tribunal Of
arbitration win alone settle the dis
putes."
The Journal des Debats thinks the
United States should compel the Gu
ban government to assume the debt
and believes that the spanish would
submit to arbitration. which. IT under
stands, the United States declined to
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