The record-union., 1898-08-26
Seems Likely We VIII Long Have
Them on Our Hands.
May Be Left Paupers Dependent on the
Charity Of United States.
Spain's Reluctance to Look After
the Welfare of Her Common
Seamen Captured at Santiago
May Lead to the Officers Parole
Being Revoked.

NEW YORK, Aug. pa Tribune"
Washington special says:
The Presidents magnanimous offer
to Spain, made through the good Of
hces of the British Embassador at
Madrid in the first week of August
Just after the initiation of peace neSo-
1ations, to release all of the Spanish
naval prisoners on parole for prompt
repatriation, which was declined by
Premier Sagasta, has had the indirect
result of alternating most of the or
binary prisoners. as we'll as many of
the officers, from their mother country
The Navy Department may eventually
be compelled to abandon the compara-
lively luxurious treatment it has ac-
corded these men and to put them to
work. There are / 900 prisoners at Sea-
vey Island, in the Kittery (Maine)
Navy Yard, including nearly all the
ordinary seamen and petty officers who
We're saved when Cervera's fleet was
annihilated. At the naval hospital,
near Norfolk, Va. the seriously wound
ed, 200 in number, have been under
treatment and most of them are now
convalescent. The principal officers,
numbering fifty-t three, have been quar-
tered in Annapolis in buildings which
Will Dt HGeueu III Il lew Weeks IOT the
officers and Professors attached to the
Naval Academy.
The men at Norfolk are a great bur-
den upon the naval medical authori-
ties, but the Navy Department is prin-
cipally concerned about the large force
of men at Seavey Island. They are
quartered in comfortable, but tenn
porary, wooden structures, which do
very we'll for summer, but the occupa-
tion of which will cause great suffering
soon on account of the approaching
cold weather to which the Spaniards
are wholly unaccustomed. Some of the
Spanish officers have written home
that they hope the war will last anoth-
er year in order that they may con-
tinlIe to enjoy the treatment they have
been receiving, but others, notably
Captain Concas, who has been in this
coLntry longer than any of his col
leagues, have recently caused consider
able pressure from various sources.
chiefly political, to be brought to bear
upon the Navy Department to consent
to the return of the officers to Spain.
Naval officials make no concealment
of their anxiety to get rid of Captain
Concas and all the other officers at
Annapolis and Norfolk, who are now
on parole. but there is no intention to
release the officers until Spain makes
some provision for the ordinary sea-
men, Spains reply to the Presidents
original offer to surrender all the pris-
oners on parole was as follows:
Owing to the existence of a Spanish
law to the effect that any Spanish sail
or accepting a parole in order to pro-
cure his release is liable to punishment
the Government is unable to act uron
the suggestion of the United States and
to remove the prisoners captured by
the destruction of Admiral CerveraS >
fleet to Spain"
1t is the impression in the Navy De-
Department, as Spain is SO much more
particular about prohibiting ordinary
seamen from accepting parole than she
is in the case of the superior officers,
that some Interior motive must be at
the bottom of the matter, and that
possibly, if her officers were returned
home the Spanish Government would
take no further interest in the sailors,
but leave them as paupers dependent
upon the charity of the United States.
It is certain. therefore, that the OH
GERS will remain under restraint as
long as the men are confined, and IL
Spain continues to be Indifferent, 1t is
nossible that some of the luxurieS Will
he taken from the officers and that
they will be made to feel, in meas
ure. that they are, in fact, prisoners OF
war.