The age-herald., 1898-03-20
least the general conclusions reached by

least the general conclusions reached by that court
 It can be stated positively. however, from an authoritative source that the officers did not bring with them the report, either
 as whole or its general conclusions IL is stated with equal positiveness and au- thoritatively that they do not know what the action of the court of inquiry is and l therefore are not in a position to convey l any information to the president or secre- | tary of the navy on that point. Their 1 talks were confined entirely to graphic narratives of their experiences on the nlght | of the explosion. In the course of this l narrative, however. individual opinion as | to the cause of the explosion found ex- 1 pression. These opinions as already stat l ed were purely personal and not founded | on the proceedings of the court of inquiry. | These personal opinions, however, 1t was l learned reliably were strongly favorable to l the theory of an external cause leading to l the destruction of the Maine. The off, l cers themselves maintain the strictest re- 1 serve, not only as to interviews for pub l lication, but also in talking with their l sociates in the naval service. This led l naval officers to refrain from referring to | the Maine disaster while talking with l them. One of the officers volunteered to suggest that he would be glad to talk if | his lips were not sealed by the strictest order.
 They Are Hiding Out After the conference with the president and secretary of the navy, the Maine offl cers did not return to the navy depart ment, and considerable care was exercised 1 in having their whereabouts kept from pub lie attention.
 Another interesting arrival of the day was Constructor Hoover, the technical ex- pert sent to Havana to identify the twisted plates in the Maine's wreckage with view of learning whether the explosion was of internal of external origin. MT. Hoover also maintained silence concerning the | wreck. He made no report to the secretary l of the navy, as he was sent to Havana to learn facts and then embody 1t in testimony before the naval court of inquiry. Late in the day the prospects became much brighter for the acquisition by the United States of two exceptionally fine warships, namely, the armored cruiser San Martino, belonging to the Argentine Re- public, and the battleship Gen. OHiggins, belonging to Chilli. The hope of getting these ships had almost been given up, but cablegrams received today from Com
 mander Brownson, now in Europe, made the outlook more encouraging. Up to the close of office hours actual purchase had
 not been concluded, but high official summed up the situation by saying the ne- gotiations were getting "very hot" Active Preparations Both the navy and war departments con- tinue their active preparations for emer-
 
 ment which are being made daily by the various bureaus. The naval bureau of ordnance has contracted for 4500 900 pounds of brown powder, which is probably the largest single order ever given. This was divided between the Golf Powder and the Dupont Powder company. These concerns together are furnishing the bureau about 0,000 pounds daily and in week or so it is expected the capacity of these two works will be brought up to 10000 pounds of pow der daily. The order is sufficient in the ag gregate to give 200 rounds to every gun afioat in the American navy, and with this large supply on hand the navy for the first time in years will be more than amply supplied with powedr.-
 An unusual large number of senators took advantage of the fact that the senate was not in session today to call upon the cabinet officers with the hope of securing definite information to the Cuban situa- tion. They succeeded only in learning that the report of the Maine court of inquiry had not arrived but that it is expected early next week and that it would be for warded to congress immediately, unless of an unexpectedly startling character. If the Maine Is Eliminated
 The officials of the state department were deliberating upon the line of policy to be pursued in case tho report of the naval court should have the effect of entirely eliminating the Maine incident from the
 situation So strongly was this contin-
 gency dwelt upon that the inference was
 drawn by some of the senatorial visitors
 that the department had been led to be-
 lieve or even had been inferred that the
 report would fail to connect the Spanish
 authorities or the Spaniards with the
 tragedy. Still, the state department officials
 did not make any positive declaration that
 such information was in their possession,
 rather advancing it as a tentative sugges-
 tion and when pressed for information on this point replied that they only knew
 that the report was to come next week
 and that they had no advance information
 as to it's contents. They seemed inclined
 to seek suggestions rather than to give out
 opinions as to plans apparently indicating
 that no definite coure had been deoideo
 on pending the Maine report.
 Diplomatic Aspect
 The diplomatic aspect of the spanish
 question developed no new phases today.
 Ii Is stated positively that no concrete
 nropositions on the enlargement of the
 present plan of autonomy or settlement I based on independence, by purchase or otherwise, or a mutual cessation of naval
 and war preparations have been under
 consideration. These subjects are con-
 tinually coming up for abstract discussion, | more in the line of argument, pro and con-, 4
 as to what might be done toward sou-
 tion. But beyond this none of these prepa- I
 rations has advanced to the stage where
 it may be said to be a question Of ofhcial
 negotiation between the two governments.
 Messrs. Angulo, Valoro and Cadonez, the
 three commissioners named by the Cuban
 cabinet to act with Minister Polo in fram-
 ing commercial treaty, will be presented to Secretary Sherman and Judge Day Mon
 day They expect to take up the negotia-
 tions with MT. Kasson after the ceremony of presentation is concluded.