The Florence tribune., 1898-06-04
TELEGRAPHIC REPORT.

UnSro dPPcdrS Io oe SOtucbhluS III thc nature of an official statement of the plan of campaign of the United States government. This is contained in letter of Secretary Alger to the Speaker of the House, transmitting certain recommendations and statements of General Ludlow, which disclosed the purpose of the War Department to send 0,000 men to Cuba; 10000 to start at once, and the remainder just as soon as they can be made ready for depar ture.
 There was an estimate for establish ing electrical communication iu con- nection with the army in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, showing for the first time officially an implied in- tention on the part of the government to land troops in Porto Rico.
 Of course all these movements have been anticipated by the press, but nevertheless a strong element of doubt exists and therefore an official state ment of the governments purposes, made even in this indirect fashion, created profound sensation here, in asmuch as the Secretary says that the second contingent of troops is to go forward as soon as they can be pre- pared.
 A good deal of interest is attached to an order that was made to-day at the War Department providing for the or ganization of the 75,000 additional vol unteers called for. The order officially establi he statements heretofore made in Tuesdays dispatches, that large proportion of the new men are to be used to fill up existing regiments of volunteers which in most cases are de- ficient in numbers.
 The naval officials have been consid- erably mystifed throughout the day by the reports of an engagement of Sam tiago de Cnba. Corroborative evidence coming in from many quarters, inclu- ding official announcements from Ha- vaua and Madrid, led the officers to concede late in the day that some en- gagement had taken place, although they did not regard it as very serious one.
 No bulletins were issued by the de- partment during the day and at the close of office hours it was stated that no dispatches from Commodore Schley had been received during the day.
 There is reason to believe, however that the department received indirect advices through the State Department possibly not bearing out the detailed press dispatches, but they are sufficient to indicate that an engagement oi some kind had occurred at Santiago.
 The impression is that in the execu ton of general instructions to all com manders on the Cuban coast to prevent the construction or strengthening O barriers by the Spanish, Commodore Schley, observing work of this kint going on at Moro Castle, had drawn his fleet up close enough to stop it. It is not believed that he made any real at tempt to enter the harbor, but whil, engaged in the task of shelling th' shore batteries, seeing the Christoba Colan in range, he could not resist ths temptation to try few shots at her.
 The statement from Madrid in what seemed to have been an almost semi official form of the acuteness of ths financial stringency and the plain inti nation that the Bank of Spain, anc consequently Spain, was nearing ar end of their resources, was regarded al the State Department as of more real significance than many of the stories oi battles on land and sea that have been coming over the cables for the past few weeks. The effect of this notice may be to hasten operations against Porte Rico lest the prize slip from our grasT through sudden and unexpected ter imitation of the war. An additiona evidence that an actual forward move ment of the army and navy has begun was given in the action of the foreign naval and military observers. They have been sojourning in Washington some time, but in the last week all oi them have started for Florida.
 TAMPA, June 1.-Major William D. Smith, formerly of Gomez's staff, has returned from dangerous trip to Ha- vana and the outlying provinces.
 "I was in Havana several hours," he said last night, land the city simply swarms with soldiers. There are 140,- coo Spanish soldiers in Havana city, Havana province and Matanzas. Forty thousand men are in Havana, 1000 in Matanzas and the remainder scattered along the coast on each side of these two points.
 "I landed within a mile and half of Morro castle, crept past sentinel and soon mingled with the Spanish sol