The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-21
PITIFUL PLEA FOR
MERCY TO SPAIN

LONDON, Oct 2O.-The Paris CORE
spondent of the Times says:
Il had a visit to-day from a great
Spanish parsonage who seems to have
been commanded to ascertain the trend
Of public opinion on the negotiations
here. He appeared much depressed. He
has found great and general sympathy
with Spain, but was unable to discover
any possibility Of obtaining moral sup
port against the American delegates,
who are inf1exible in their demands and
with much politeness of form have
hitherto categorically refused to make
the slightest concessions on any of the
instructions received by them. never
having asked their Government for the
slightest notifications.
The intended sitting yesterday could
not be held because the Spaniards, in
view of the written replies made to
them, renowned their attempts at con-
versation and asked forty EIGHT hours
grace to consult their Government and
prepare a written rejoinder.
THE friend who called to tell me he
had found his countrymen much dis
couraged, being convinced that the
United States is bent on a rigorous ex-
ercise of the rights of victor, remarked:
L have heard that Prince Bismarck
once said to you: When you have your
hand on the throat of vanquished ma
ton you can take from it all you like,
but you must always beware of abus-
ing your victory and eXaggerating your
conquests. Otherwise you load yourself
for many generations with a crushing
burden, which ends by having the most
mischievous results for the victor-al-
most more than for the vanquished."
My caller remarked:
The Amer1cansare not adopting this
wise and humane view. They seem
bent on pushing the results of the war
to their extreme consequences. They
refuse to entertain any concession on
the Philippine question, and while de-
clining to take any sovereignty in
Cuba, they maintain that the Cuban
abused her sovereignty by saddling the
island with the interest of debt by
which she alone profited.
'Vainly have we urged that they
themselves accepted financial obliga-
tons toward England after the war Of
independence, that they accepted the
burdens of taxes after the conquest.
that there is no more general law than
the law of the obligations Of a country
changing with its rulers, and that it
would be an arbitrary course and a
vexatious precedent to throw the
~
they stand peremptorily on their de-
mands.
=" What our delegates should say to
them, if they persist, as 1t is to be
feared they will, is this: 1--WE are in
your hands. You are the victors. We
for once committed the folly of going
to war with you because you left us no
time to avoid it; because you treated
us in such way that even at the risk
of suicide we were bound to plunge into
war, although the result of 1t was evil
dent to us. But we will not commit
the fresh folly Of recommending war in
any form. We are, therefore, at your
mercy. We shall submit to your die
tates and shall leave the world to Judge
of those dictates; but no human force
will compel us to subscribe to them,
and we shall not subscribe"
'''This is what our delegates ought to
say on this Cuban question. AS for the
other points, they will wait to hear
what they are"