The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-24
SUBMARINE MINE
AND NOT TORPEDO
BELIEVED TO BE THE WORK OF
JUNIOR SPANISH OFFICERS.
IF CONFIRMED WAR is INEVITABLE
Havana Could be Taken With the Firing Of a
Gun--The Court of Inquiry Progress
ing Carefully and lnteIIigenty.
Censorship is Very Strict.
Censorship is Very Strict.


Censorship is Very Strict.
Havana, Feb. 23, via Key West, Fla
The situation, which may be changed
ut any moment by fresh discoveries, may
be summed up, when this dispatch is sent
this afternoon, substantially as follows:
The divers having discovered cases of
brown heXagonal powder for the ten
inch guns unexploded, and believing also
that other powder unexploded will be
found in the 10-inch magazine on the
star board side forward, the conviction
grows that this magazine did not blow
up. Ii this be SO, and many have in
sisted from the first that it is, the
further conviction is forced that the
explosion which wrecked the Maine
came from the outside on the port bow.
As previously wired the main portion
Of the wreck as seen from above and
noted from below, was blown to star
board
The highest American officials here
are confident that General Blaneo and
rhe other high Spanish officials had 10
knowledge, direct or indirect, of the
conception or execution of % plot To
blow mp thc Maine, if such Il plot eX-
listed. but they believe the Junior Span
ish officers. who from the nature Of
iihifigs, are more conyersant with mod
cfn explosives than their elders and SUI
periOrs. were at the bottom of the dis
aater. il there were any outside agency.
II is pointed out that it would not be
impossible to plant a mine of wet and
dry gun cotton near where foreign
war vessel was directed to anchor, such
a mine communicating with I'm electric
battery on the shore. 1t is regarded as
an interesting point that the Maine, for
the first time during her stay in the
harbor, lay at the particular spot where
gae was at the time of the catastrophe,
and ii is said, though not officially veri-
fed, that the Maine was the first for
t.gn war vessel mo0red to this particular
buoy since the troubles in Cuba grew
acute.
CAPTAIN SIGSBEE VERY STRICT.
All stories as to lax discipline on the
Maine are without shadow of truth.
On the contrary Captain Sigsbee was
complained of by some for the rigidity
of his rules and the strictness with
which he enforced them. Moreover, the
Maine has been in commission for years
and never had a serious accident until
anchored in this quiet harbor.
In reply 10 a question put by this cor
respondent to high American official
as to what the outcome would he If ii
were proved that the disaster was due
10 an outside agency, the official in
question said:
Sir, the American people could not be
restrained. / mean war. Still, | doubt
whether it would be necessary to fire a
shot. Admiral Sicard could anchor the
Iowa. the Indiana, the Massachusetts
and the New York outside Havana har-
Dor to prevent the ingress of the food
supplies, without which the city could
not exist "a fortnight.
Cuba is waste of ashes and desola-
ton. Even the hotels and cafes III Ha-
yana live from hand to mouth, on sup
plies brought from the United States.
IF Admiral Sicard demanded the sur
render of Havana, giving twenty four
hours for the removal of the women and
children, surrender would follow. The
forts are old structures and could be
demolished by a six pom1er. Such new
guns as have been mounted are short Of
ammunition and have never beer tried.
If General Blanco should decline to sur
render, the Spanish merchants here, who
represent eighty per cent of the proper
~ and pay seventy five per cent of the
taxes of the island, would compel him
to accede to Admiral Sicard's terms As
for the volunteers, the men are for the
mCst part the employees of these mer-
chants and the volunteer officers are
largely their sons or their junior part
ners.
SHOULD BE RESTRAINT.
''It is well to look these things in the
face. AT the same time it is well for
the Americans to restrain themselves un-
Ill there is some proof of an outside
agency of explosion. We can af-
ford TO wait Il little longer, seeing tina
we have waited so long. We could not
wait after it had once been proven that
the Maine disaster was the result of :,
dastardly plot. Spanish Officers from
the old country hold to the unaccounta
BILE belief that their arms would over
come us in a few weeks, but the Cubar
merchants have no such delusion, anC