The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1898-07-30
Entirely Without Foundation.
No Peace Overtnres Made
Until Tuesday.
Not Considered That Overtures
Operate in Any Manner as
q Truce.
Charges Looked Upon as Evinc-
ing a Disposition Not to
Deal Frankly.

stated on the authority OF the state
department. and the foreign embassies
here that there were no overtures in
behalf Of Spain for peace or a cessation
Of hostllities until the French ambassa-
dor last Tuesday afternoon presented
his note to the president. This state-
ment is made with full knowledge Of
European denials, and must be accept.
ed as that of the government OF the
United States. Therefore all talk about
3 bad faith shown by our government
Ia pressing the Porto Rican campaign
during the last few days is absolutely
without foundation, and our govern.
ment has done nothing that can sub.
feet it to criticism on this score. In
addition to the representatives OF the
United States government, the persons
qualified to speak for the government
Of Spain in this country make an ex.
actly similar statement, and the alleged
charges Of bad faith against the United
States attributed to Premier Sagasta are
D,scrstiited 40 Inventions
designed to prejudice the successful
progress of the present peace move.
ment. It could not be contemplated
for moment that any mere personal.
exchange of views between persons in
Europe could be construed as an over.
ture for peace, and although there may
have been some Of this "back door gos-
sip," as it is denominated at the state
department., it can be again affirmed
that the United States government has
not been party to it. . s.-y
Even supposing there had been peace
overtures, which there had not been,
military authorities regard Premier
Sagasta's alleged statement that peace
overtures operate to stay the course OF
military operations, as little short Of
amazing and as directly contrary not
only to the military law Of the United
States but to the whole recognised
principles of international law. In
general, the international law writers
agree that military operations stop
only when truce or an armistice is
actually concluded, and that this
Truce or Armistics Must Be in Writing.
The military authorities. as we'll a.
the the specific regulations Of the
the United States, hold that there IS
no suspension Of hostilities prior to the
agreement to suspend military opera
tions. Even then the agreement is
binding on military commanders only
from the time they receive actual
notice Of it. In the meantime military
commanders have the right to push
forward and hold such territory as
! they occupy. The need for limiting
this cessation is obvious, for until q
signed agreement is made there is no
knowledge Of the extent Of the armis.
tice.
May Continue Certain Operations.
In the present case an armistice
might include or exclude the Philip.
pines or Porto Rico, as the two parties
might agree, but until they agree,
there will be no obligation to abate
military operations in any field Of op.
erations. After the signing Of the arm.
istice preliminary to peace, q status
quo is established, and all military
operations come to halt at the points
designated, and at points not deslg-
mated the military operations pro.
ceed. In the present case. ii
the truce is general, General
Shafter, General Miles and Admiral
Dewey would simply retain the posi-.
!. tions they now occupy and moral OBJ.
NRation would be imposed not to
strengthen these positions, or make
secret preparations for more effective
continuance Of the war hereafter. The
military authorities agree that the only
-':a--+inn for this rule is that rein.