Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-10-13
The Peace Commission.

We SCI. then. than. " the Instructions
given 90 our peace commission have
been curwctly reported, thcy are 90
qufatlnnnhla CNpVdlVncy, except ~ far
a. they comprise a demand fuf IN. cca.
sion 81 LuzOu. The supplemental Sup
ulatiota, even should spain noninally
subscribe TO ihem, could uniy be on
forced BY r'courae % war. In which u
IL not improbable that We should have
more than one aniaEunist. We arr I'M
able. however. to perceive on what
ground the assumption IL made by
many daily papgrs that spain will. even
nOmlually, assent to any conditions that
We see % 10 iut forward. Spain has
an equal voice In the peace cummlalspn3
her plcnlpotentlaries have as much
right 10 refuse any designated terms as
W. have TO propose them. the moment
We 80 outside the text % tho protocol,
which only bound spain tu surrender
CuDt and Puerto Rico, together with a
port Ia tn Laironsa, and which rclc-
gated 10 the commission uo whole quta-
lion uf the Philippines, with the eN-
cyptIin 81 the provision that our occu-
patton OF tho city aud harbor ~ Manila
should continue. The moment, then,
that our commissioners ask fug any
thing beyond that what a. given ~ by
the protocol. their spanish Colleagues
are at prrfcc, liberty TO withhold a.,
and should they persist In a Tccalcltrant
attitude, thssnly possible outcome u
iy "a deadlock. We should be- reduced,
apparently, 10 chulco between those
alternatives, namely, a renewal ~ the
war or a complete remuneration OF the
claims made by our commissioners. We
ray "npparNfsiy," Tor u IN 10 b. hoped
that third course may BE- hit upon,
acolng that the American people would
ha aaAAnHHAH saN ha Lar
Of lhr alternatives named, while, On the
other hand u would be- unreasonable 30
make ~ Incur u further waste ~ patrl-
otto blood merely because President Me
inley ala not know his own mind about
the Philippines 40 the time when the
protocol was signed. What ~ the third
course THAT We might follow, provided
SPANS plcnlpoienilarlea shhll exercise
their undouhted right OF declining TO
arquicsco In the terms proposed by our
commandment Obviously, Il would hs
cheaper Tor NJ 20 offor spain some
pccunlary compensation than 20 sup
port the cost ~ a teneWal of she war.
In the present condition ~ Ia treasury.
the Madrid government 10 not In p1-
~ LuEpn an army and a
navy adequate TO the main
tcnunce OF peace and tho
order. and q would gladly be relieved
OF that burden, provided q could Obj
tain, az the same time, some help to-
ward the Liquidation Of IL most press
Ing financial obligations. There ", Tor
Instance, the H1-callcd Philippine debt
which II relatively small. ana the Gu
ban debt. which u comparatively
large. the Interest on both N these In
documents has hitherto been met from
the revenues OF the Islands concerned,
but must now be defrawed from The
public Income Of the lhcrlnn peninsula
itself We might agree 10 assume the
Philippine debt, ana further covenant
that either the United States or lnde-
pendent Cuba would provide the inter-
est on one-nfth OF the cuban debt,
that being the fraction which the au-
economist government, established at
Havana under General Blanco. ac-
ccplcd az representing that port of the
money borrowed In cuha's name which
was actually applied FOR the welfare
OF the Island, The whole sum, for which
We might thus render ourselves d.
reotly OF lndlrectly responsible, would