Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-07-28
GARCIA NO Longer AN ALLY
Cuban Leader Refuses to Fight
Under Gen. Shafter.
MAKES A BITTER COMPLAINT,
Was Not Invited to Surrender of Santiago
HIS Army Is Poor and Ragged
but Are as Civilized and as Much
Heroes as the Americans of 70.

Gen. Calixito Garcia, commanding
the insurgent army in eastern Cuba.
has written letter TO Gen. Shafter in
which he says that in obedience to the
orders of his superiors in Cuba his
army has tried in every way to coop
crate with the American forces, but
that he now feels that he has been
most unfairly treated by the American
commander. He SAYS that he has
never been officially notified of the
surrender of the Spanish at Santiago.
neither was he nor any member of his
staff invited to be present and repre-
sent the Cuban government on that
memorable occasion. Gen. Garcia
then says:
"Finally, know that you have left
in power at Santiago the same Spanish
authorities that for three years l have
fought as enemies of the independence
of Cuba. / beg to state that those
authorities have never been elected at
Santiago by residents of the city, but
appointed by royal decree of the queen
of Spain. $3.50 rumor too absurd
to be believed, general, ascribes the
reason of your measure and of the orders
of forbidding my army to enter San
tiago to fear of massacres and revenges
against the Spaniards. Allow me, sir,
to protest against even the shadow of
such an idea. We are not savages,
ignoring rules of civilized warfare.
We are poor, ragged army, as rag
ged and poor as was the army of your
forefathers in their noble war for in
dependence; but as did the heroes OF
Saratoga and Yorktown we respect
too deeply our cause to disgrace
it with barbarism and cowardice.
In view of all these reasons / sincerely
regret to be unable to fulfill any
longer the orders of my government,
and therefore, have rendered to the
commander-in-ch of the Cuban army,
Maj.-Gen. Maxine Gomez, my resigna-
ton as commander of this section of
our army. Awaiting his resolution
withdraw my forces to Jaguari. Very
respectfully yours, CALIXTo GARCIA"
Members of the Cuban junta at New
York are of the opinion that there is
sad misunderstanding somewhere, and
they quote one report as saying that
Gen. Garcia refused to attend the cer-
emonies of the surrender of Santiago,
and then refer to Garcias statement
that he was not even informed of the
surrender. Senior Genovar, who was
Garcia's interpreter at Santiago, has
just arrived at New York and says that
the bad feeling on the part of the
American troops toward the Cuban
soldiers is due to mistake in taking
pacificos for Cuban soldiers. The reg
ular Cuban troops were on the west of
American troops during the action,
and it was the refusal of paoi ficos wan
dering about to the east to work or to
fight, even after they had been fed by
Americans, which prejudiced the latter
against the C1bans in general. Senior
Genovar refers to the fighting done by
the Cuban soldiers at Camp McCalla on
Guantanamo as showing what kind of
men they are. He says an inspection
of the Cuban hospitals about Santiago
showed that they contained several
hundred wounded soldiers, an evidence
that the Cubans did some fighting.