Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-07-28

and In the evening tho President was
| Joined ny Secretaries Piss and Wilson
! end Postmaster General Smith. There
was no cabinet meeting in the ordinary
sense but those talks with individual
members served about the same purpose
rs n formal meeting.
1t was understood the President would
he prepared to give an answer within the
next few days and certainly before the
| next regular cabinet day on Friday No
! intimation came from any official source
as to the probable character Of the ans
wcr. There were strong intimatons, how
| ever. that there would TO no acceptance
| which would imply the stopping of the
war when the American arms were add
| Ing victories on victories and the embark
| Ing on vague diplomatic negotiation Il
! vas iet that this government had every
| thing to lose In subtle game Of diplo-
| macy In which the only certain element
would be the inacton of our army and
| navy. For this reason there was n dis
| position in official quarters to know what
! terms were In sight before entering upon
general negotiations
In case tho peace negotiations are open-
ed, the means by which they will be car
ried on are not determined nor have they
been officially considered. It is under
stood, however. that one means likely to
he proposed is to authorize direct negotia-
tons between Spain and this country.
Spain being represented by Senior Leon
Castillo. the Spanish Ambassador at Pars
and the United States ny Gen. Horace
Porter our Ambassador to France.
This plan is quite ten
doubtful whether the United States
government would consent to have such
important negotiations removed so far
from Washington and conducted in a Eu-
ropcan capital where the atmosphere
might not be conducive to forwarding the
desires of this country.
SPANS peace proposal excited deepest
interest throughout Washington and for
the time being war news gave way To AMI
mated discussion of the prospects for
peace. This was particularly true In di-
plomatic circles. Several of the foreign
representatives made inquiries Of the
State department as tn the meaning of
the French ambassadors call and learn
ing that he had presented Span's proro-
s!tion for peace, fun reports were cablod
to the foreign Offices.
More news of the landing of Cen Miles
at Guanica on the Southwest shore Of
Porto Rico came as genuine surprise n
the War Department. 1t had been all
carefully planned that he was to make
his landing at another point as remote as
possible from the place where ne actual
~ landed, SO there was little wonder that
the officials received the first news of
the landing with incrcdulty and even
went to the length Of supposing that the
story had been put aioat in order To dis
tract attention from the point which had
been selected. Just why Gen. Miles made
this wide departure from the plans Of the
department Is not known. but II is sup
posed that he gathered some Information
since he LEFT Siboney that Induced him 20
make the change. The result, however,
has been to pcrpleX the department off,
cials deeply and to considerably derangG
their carefully prepared programme for
the remainder Of the expedition. II Will
now be necessary to intercept the sectors
of tho expedition already at sea headed fer
certain selected points on the coast of
Porto Rico and to advise them OF the
change in the plans
1t Is another exhibition of the reliance
placed by the government in the despatch
as OF the Associated Press that IL pro-
ceedcd to act at once in the direction in
dicated and to take steps to notify the
sections afoat without waiting for news
from Gen. Miles himself. The only ap-
prOach to an official communications on
the subject came from St. Thomas and
was hardly more comprehensive than the
brief statement received last night by the
newspapers, merely announcing that the