Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-04-22
THE HORRORS OF CUBA
AS Described by Our Consuls
Who Have just Returned.

>
message on the Cuban situation, was pre-
pared in response to resolutions of inquiry
adopted by both houses of Congress. 1t
covers the correspondence of Consul Gen
eral Lee at Havana, Consul McGarr at
Cienfuegos, Consul Brice at Matanzas,
Consul Hyatt at Santiago de Cuba and
Consul Barker at Sagua la Grande. The
communications deal largely with the dis
tress and suffering which exist in all the
districts, and Gen. Lee reports upon the
DEGREES of the government with regard to
autonomy and other political phases of the
situation. In the main these reports are
simply horrible and sickenng revelation
OF the condition of Cuban elaboration
of the story which Senator Proctor told in
his speechin the Senate.
Gen. Lees correspondence runs over the
period from Nov II, 1897, to April l, 1898.
Nov. % he expressed his confidence in the
desire of Gen. Blanco to relieve the dis
tress caused by Weyler's concentration or
der, but said he had not the means to do
this. The statement of two responsible
men about the condition in Los Fosos 1.-THE
ditches) in Havana was given. This said
in part: -Four hundred and sixty women
and children thrown on the ground, heap
ed pell nell as animals, some in a dying
condition, others sick, others dead, with
out the slightest cleanliness or the least
help, not even able to give water to the
thirsty without either religious or social
help; each one dying wherever chance laid
him." The communication goes on to
state that the deaths among these recon-
centrados average 40 or 80 daily, and that
on an average there were but ten days of
life for each person. Some horrible in
stances of the distress witnessed are given
Further along the communication says
that II any young girl came in who was
nice looking she was invariably condemned
to the most abominable traffic. Seven
teen hundred persons had entered the fosos
since August, and of those only 243 were
then living. The writers placed the num-
Der of deaths among the reconcentrados at
- per cent.
Jan. 8 Gen. Lee sent in a report in which
he said: The reconcentrado order of Gen.
Weyler transformed about 400, 900 self-sup-
porting people, principally women and
| children, into a multitude TO be sustained
| by the contributions of others or die of
starvation or of fevers resulting from a
| low physical condition and being massed
in large bodies without change of clothing
and without food. Their homes were
| burned, their fields and plant beds destroy
| ed and their live stock driven away or kill
ed. estimate that probably 200. 900 OF
the rural population in the provinces OF
/ Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas and San
ia Clara have died of starvation or from
| resultant causes, and the deaths of whole
| families almost simultaneously or within a
| few days of each other, and of mothers
| praying for their children to be relieved OF
their horrible sufferings by death, are not
/ the least OF the many pitiable scenes which
| were ever present
On the same day he also sent statistic.
| about the mortality in Santa Clara, show
| ing that, while there were 54S9 deaths in
that town in the seven years previous 10
1897, which included l417 in one veal
from an epidemic of yellow fever, Their,
| were in 1897, owing to the concentration
| order, 69Sl deaths out of population Of
| $4,000 The death rate increased monthly
from IS in January, the month before the
concentration order went into effect, unit
| December, when there were l0ll deaths.
| Early in February Gen. Lee sent to tn,
state department statement OF the con
| dition in the towns in the neighborhood o.
the city of Havana made by a person h,
had sent to those places for the purpose o.
|
starving. The statement covers four towns
in the neighborhood of Havana and il
| largely a repetition of the awful tale o
suffering which came from the other parti
of the island. The report from Cataline d,
| Gaines is a sample of all: The condition
of the reconcentrados was desperate. They
we're not allowed to leave the town il
search of work or food, even with a mill
/ tor yUa hat
must walk four or five miles before find
ing a sweet potato. The land near tn,
town comprised in the "zone for cul
tivation," had been rented by fou
Spaniards who had wealth and inhu
ence, and they employed the few recon
centrados who were able to work at 80 o
40 cents day, but nobody could leave tn
town without a pass good for a month
which cost 20 cents. The workmen had Il
start at o'clock in the morning, and, no
being able to take meals with them, wer
obliged to work until 6 in the evening
without food. The women who went il
search of vegetables were sometimes de
prived of them on their way back b
guerillas. In 10 days 200 reconcentrado
had died in Guines from starvation.
On March IA Gen. Lee inclosed lette
from Consul Barker, of Sagua, who re
quested him to transmit the following lei
ter, addressed to Gen. Lee:
s'Dear Sir: | will! thank you to com
municate to the department as quickly a
possible the fact that the military con
mander and other military officers positive
" refuse to allow the reconcentrados t
whom l am issuing food in its raw stat
TO procure fuel with which to cook tn
food. In addition, they prohibited thi
class of people from gathering vegetable
cultivated within the protection of th
forts. telling them, The Americans pre-
pose to feed you, and to the American
you must look
Mr.. Brier, consul at Matanzas, says i
one of his reports that there are in ths
province alone 10000 who are actual
starving and who require food, clothin
and medicine, and continues: 1.-The pee
Die are shut up in the cities and town
like rats to starve. We have 10 or Is fan
lilies of American reconbentrados VIII
own property in the country, and, wei
thew allowed TO go to their homes, coul
make a good living. All these have be!
ged and pleaded with the authorities u
der Blanco's order to go, and were in ever
case refused"
Consul Barker covers the conditions e.
isting in Santa Clara province in nun
her of communications. His letters col
stitute one long story of distress, sicknes
restitution and death, until the pictur
even as drawn in the plain language OF o
AZ Il In