The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-30
DISCUSSING TERMS OF PEACE
THE GARNET HOLDS 4 SESSION OF
 FIVE HOURS.

FIVE HOURS.
 is to be Taken Up Again TO-day-The
 Disposition of the Philippines Appears
 to be the Point Over Which the Cabi-
 net is strugging-On the Other Issues
 There is Reported to be Unanimity-
 Belief That the Meeting To-day VIII
 Result in an Answer to Spain.
 Washington, July 29.-Nearly five hours earnest discussion to-day by the president and his constitutional advis- CTS of the nature of the response to be made by the government to the Span ish overtures for peace brought no con- postponed for further consideration at another meeting of the cabinet to be held at 1o:3o o'clock tomorrow morn ing. Such was the formal statement of the situation made at the conclusion of the days work by each member of the cabinet who was questioned on the subject A final conclusion. however, is much nearer than this statement would seem to indicate, and, indeed, there is little reason to doubt that an agreement has been reached upon all the substantial points at issue, and that what remains to be done tomorrow is rather to smooth away inequalities and adjust some minor points of difference before making the answer expected by M Canbon.
 The point under discussion was what disposition should be made of the Phil ippines. On the other issues unaninity developed. There was to be independ- ence demanded for Cuba; Porto Rico was to be ceded to the United States; coaling stations were to be acquired at Guan. in the Ladrone islands, and in the Caroline islands. These proposi- fions were disposed of quickly, but when it came to the Philippines some diversity of opinion was revealed. As near as can be gathered this did not relate mainly to the retention of the islands, on which proposition a major ity of the cabinet was speedily recorded in the negative But accepting the broad proposition that Spain was to be allowed to keep these possessions. other questions of importance developed and it was felt that these must be answered definitely before the subject could be disposed of There was no question as to the propriety of demanding a coaling 4l. DI,; r1yJ,sl Ia there reasonably might be difference of opinion as to the location and extent of this station, little difficulty was ex- pected to be encountered in solving that problem because the matter could be referred to the naval war board, whose members aye competent to deal with the subject.
 The perplexing problem was what form of government should be tnstitut- ed in the Philippines and what should be the nature of the guarantee required of Spain that the new government should be liberal and autonomous in character. These two questions hinged on the primary decision to interference at all in prescribing a change in the conditions in the Philippines. Some members of the cabinet felt that the in- surgents under Aguinaldo, having acted independently of the United States from the beginning of the instruction, and having lately shown disposition to make trouble for us, had no moral claim upon the United States in tLe settlement of the terms of peace. It was also argued that our government should not lose opportunity to extend its principles throughout the world and that this could be done in the present case by requiring Spain to extend gen. uine autonomy to the Philippines It was on such points as these that the discussion proceeded all day.
 A point which was quickly establish ed was that there should be no refer ence of any phrase of the question of disposition of the islands to any con- cert or individual action by outside powers. Another point that was set tied, though there was no formal &C., tion 1t was that no protest against the continuance of military or naval opera tions pending the peace negotiations would avail in the slightest, that there would be no arnistice, no suspension of operations, nor any modification whatever, of the present plan until the Spanish government had agreed to the terms proposed. Incident to the ces- sion of Porto Rico and the recognition of Cuban independence by Spain was the decision that every vestige of Span ish government and authority in the Caribbean and West Indian waters must be removed, effecting a material acquisition of numerous islands over which the Spanish flag flies, one of the most important of which is the Isle of Pines. Furthermore, this sweeping change of authority from Spain to the United States in our nearby waters is to be effective also as a quit claim of all indebtedness assumed by Spain and charged by her to those islands, so far as the United States is concerned, and all commercial treaties now existing between Spain and her possessions there and outside powers are extin- guished.
 Some discussion was had as to the probability of the Spanish acceptance