Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-04-11

Cuba and by the addition to the horrors
of the strife. The new and inhuman
phase, happily unprecedented In tho
modern history of civilized Christian
people, the policy of devastation and
concentration inaugurated by the cap>
tain-general's bando of October 81.
1896. in the province of Pinar del Rio,
was thence extended to embrace all OF
the island to which the power of the
Spanish arms was able to reach by
occupation or by military operations.
The peasantry, including all dwell
ings in the open agricultural interior.
were driven into the garrison towns OF
Isolated places held by the troops.
The raising of provisions of all kinds
was interdicted. Fields We're laid waste.
dwellings unroufed and fired, mills
destroyed, and, in short everything
that could desolate the land and render
!, q unfit for human habitation or sup
port was commanded by one or the
oth". o. the contendILg parties ard
executed by all the powers at their
disposal.
BY the time the present administra-
ton took office year ago. reooncentra-
tion--so called-had been effective over
the better part of the four central ard
western provinces, Santa Clara, Ma
tanzas, Havana and Pinar del Rio.
The agricultural population. to the es-
u
herded within the towns aud their i'm
mediate vicinity, deprived of the means
of support, rendered destitute OF shell
ter, left poorly clad and exposed to the
most unsatisfactory conditions. rs
the scarcity of food increased with the
devastation OF the depopulated areas of
production. restitution and want be-
came misery and starvation.
Month by month the death rate In
creased in alarming ratio. BY March,
1897, according to conservative esti-
mates, from official Spanish sources,
the mortality among the reconeentra-
dos from starvation and the disease
thereto incident exceeded fifty per
centum of the total number. No prac-
teal relief was accorded to the desti-
tute. The overburdened towns, al
ready suffering from the general
dearth could give no aid So-called
zones OF cultivation, established
within the Immediate area of
effective military control, about
the cities and fortified camps,
proved ilusory as remedy Tor the
suffering The unfortunates. being Tor
the most part women and children, with
aged and helpless men, enfeebled by
disease and hunger, could not nave
titled the soil without tools, seeds or
shelter. for their own support or for
the supply OF the cites. Reconcentra-
tion. ndopted ayowedly as n war meas
ure in order to cut off the resources or
the Insurgents. worked Its predestined
result. As l said In my message of last
December, 1t was not civilized warfare;
1t was determination. The only peace
II could beget was that OF the wilder
ness and the grave.
FORTUNES OF THE CONFLICTING
ARMIES.
Meanwhile the military situation in
the island had undergone noticeable
change. The extraordinary activity that
characterized the second year of the
war, when the insurgents invaded even
the hitherto unframed fields OF Pinar
del Rio and carried havoc and destitu-
ton up to the walls OF the city OF
Havana, Itself had relapsed into
logged struggle in the central and
The Spanish army regained meas
ure of control in Pinar del Rio and
parts OF Havana. but under the exist
ing conditions of the rural country:
without Immediate Improvement OF
their productive situation. Even thus
partially restricted, the revolutionlsts
held their own, and their submission.
nut forward by Spain as the essential
and sole basis of peace, seemed as FAR
distant as at the outset
In this state of affairs, my adminis-
tration found itself confronted with the
sage OF last December reviewed the
situation and detailed the steps taken
with a view of relleveing Its acuteness
and opening the way to some form OF
honorable settlement. The assassina-
tion of the prime minister. Canovas.
led TO a. change of government in
Spain. The former administration,
which pledged subjugation without
concession. gave place to that of
more liberal party, committed long in
advance to policy of reform involv-
ing the wider principle OF home rule
for Cuba and Puerto Rico.
MORE LIBERAL POLICY ADOPTED
vThe overtlres of this government
made through its new envoy Gen.
Woodford. and looking to Az imn,edi-
ate effective nmelioration 81 the con-
diiinn of tie island, although not ac-
ceptoh 70 the extent of admitted med
iation In any shape, were met 10y as
surances that home rule In an nd
fered 10 cuba without waiting for
the war to end. and that more humane
methods should thenceforth prevail in
the conduct OF hostllities. Incidentally
with these declarations the new gov
eminent of Spain continued and COM
pleted the policy already begun by Its
predecessors, of testifying friendly re-
gard for this nation by releasing
American citizens held under one
charge or another connected with the
insurrection. so that by the end of
November, not q single person entitled
In any way to our national protection,
reclined In Spanish prison.
RELIEF OF RECoNCENTRADOS
While these negotiations were In
progress. the increasing restitution OF
the unfortunate reconcentrados and the