The San Francisco call., 1898-05-14
DID FRENCHMEN MAN THE GUNS? Suspicion That Lafayette Carried More Than
 Dispatches. American Seanen Think That Spaniards Were Peculiarly
 Accurate at CardenaS. But the State Department Does Not
But the State Department Does Not Believe the Steamer Took Contra
 band of War to Havana.
Special Dispatch to The Call

NEW YORK, May 13.-A dispatch from Washington says: The possibil- ity of diplomatic complications be- tween the United Stat and France is suggested by this question, which is agitating naval officers at the capital: Did French experts man the guns that carried death to five American sailors on the Winslow?" The suspi- cion directed against France is due to two causeS-the recent blockade run ming experience of the French steamer Lafayette, which was released after being held up by the blockading fleet, and the improvement of the gunners manning the guns on the Spanish forts. The improvement is so notice able, according to naval experts, that it indicates the introduction of new and more experienced hands, when considered with the previous work of the Spanish gunners, who could not send a shell within half a mile Of a man-of war, much less strike l4O- ton torpedo boat.
 Reports from the American fleet blockading the Cuban coast received during the last four or five days have credited the Spanish gunners with much better markmanship than has formerly been given them.
 According to naval officers, the sur
 
 cent work could not be logically ex- plained by natural improvement due to practice. The Spanish gunners who have been bobbing away at the block ading fleet for ten days prior to Tues day were reported to be so bad as to merit the deserved contempt of the youngest powder monkey in the Amer ican service
 Naval officers in gunnery argue then that gunners who have brought havoc to the little WinSlow were not the same as those who have been operating the guns at Cardenas, Havana and Ma tanzas during the blockade. They are inclined to believe that the men who did the work are newcomers better trained and more expert than the Spaniards, and their deduction in- spires the suspicion against the French line steamer Lafayette, which by act of courtesy of this Government was permitted within the lines of the blockade for the ostensible purpose of delivering dispatches to the French Consul at Havana and deporting French residents who desired to leave the Cuban capital.
 PARIS, May 13-A semi official note Is issued this afternoon denying the re- port that number of French artillery men were landed at Havana by the Lafayette. which was allowed to enter 
 France has not departed and will not depart in any way from the rules of the treaty.
 WASHINGTON, May 13-The State Department to-day gave out the follow ing:
 In view of widely published reports that cite, which was recently permitted to enter Havana and discharge her official mail, had violated the neutrality under 1rh f0h ha r1rivilapa accorded hU the Government of the United States, if is authoritatively stated that the Depart vinced that nothing of the kind was done; that no merchandise whatever, no con- traband of war, and no gunners were re- gently landed at Havana by the La fayette.
 The statement was given out as a re- suit of representations received from the French Embassy The French En- bassador has been sincerely anxious to maintain the good feeling existing be- twen this country and France, and he feared that some recent publications to the effect that the Lafayette had car- ried guns and ammunition into Ha- vana in time might become accepted as fact. He also looked upon these statements as rehecting upon the char acter of the French Government, as well as upon himself, as he had given assurances that no contraband of war was landed by the Lafayette. The En- bassador's views were presented to Sec retary Day by Secretary Thiebaut. First Secretary of the French Embassy, Ambassador Cambon being confined to his room by slight illness. As evidence of the complete sincerity of the line of action relating to the Lafayette, the Embassy took the unusual course of showing all the private dispatches pass ing between the Embassy here and the French Consul General at Havana. These, together, with the manifest of the Lafayette satisfied Judge Day that any published reflections on the course of the French authorities were erro- neous. He assured the French officials that the State Department had never shared in these reports, and in order that all misapprehension on the sub ject might be cleared up he directed the foregoing statement be made public.