Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-05
Public Attention Again Centered on
the Cause and the Perpetrators.
STARTLING PUBLICATION IN HAVANA
The Editor of 81 Reconcentrado
Says He Knows the Man.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE JUNTA

disaster mas Dten keSlliy dIouStu OliCt HUN
by the publication in Havana, in the news
paper Ell Reconcentrado, of a statement to
the effect that one Zacharias Bresmes, for
merly a Spanish judge, now said to be in
hiding in Spaii:, was chiefly responsible for
the explosion. Editor Hernandez of this
newspaper, in his statement of the case
gives the record of Bresmes, charging him
with various crimes, and says:
when the Maine came into Havana har-
Dor Bresmes openly declared in the Spanish
cafes that such an act of audacity on the
part of the Yankees could not pass without
stringent punishment. His threats were
direct, and BODIED destruction to the Ameri
can ship. His associates were Felipe Con
zaleZ, Dion Sio Vega and Eusebio Azcue,
violent Spanards. Others with him were
officers of the volunteers.
These men boasted that the Yankees
We're about to get their due, though no
charge can be directed against any save
Bresmes He and the hot-headed Spauiards
of Murallo street met nightly at house
near the corner of Murallo and Habana
streets, where the public know that the
plot against the Maine was concocted and
all arrangements completed When the eX-
plosion took place Bresmes was in the
Tacon Theater with friends. At the sound
of the explosion he cried: There goes the
Mainev
champagne was drunk in honor of the
terrible event at the moment when others
We're vaguely inquiring of one another what
had happened
1t is stated now that Bresmes name was
brought before the naval court of inquiry
which investigated the explosion, but as no
positive testimony was adduced the line of
search was dropped. 1t is wired from Ha-
vana that Editor Hernandez in his publi-
cation, acknowledges that his proof is
large moral doubtless meaning thereby
what Americans are accustomed to call
"c1rcumstantial evidence"
The Junta and the Disaster.
Curiously coincidental with this news
from Havana apears in todays issue of the
Philadelphia Press, in the New York "IIol-
land letter, long account of certain hap
penngS concerning the explosion, connect
ed with the Cuban junta in this country.
In part this article is as follows:
In 1891 the Cubans established in this
city a newspaper called 'Patria,' intending
to make it the representative organ of the
revolutionists. The reason for it's existence
is now ended, and the paper, with the pub
licatiOn on January 3, issued its valedc-
tory. In the office of 'Patria' was told last
winter the stoir as the Cubans had investi-
gated it, and as they believed to be true of
the destruction of the Maine.
1t was announced today that one of the
newspapers published in Havana proposes
either today or tomorrow to tell what is
and the contamination of the plotting for
the destruction of the Maine, and it is prob
able that the time selected for this publca-
ton was puiposay made coincident with
the suspension of 'Patria.' 1t may be Dos
sible to report some Incidents which,
whatever the nature of the story published
in Havana, may be, would probably be
omitted from that report not by choice nor
for expediency, out because the facts were
not known in Havana.
The Policy of the Cubans.
ION the morning of the day that the re-
port came of the destruction of the Maine
the Cuban junta in this city received from
their friends in Cuba authoritative contir-
nation of the news and also an intimation
that the report was being spread through
Havana that the Cubans themselves were
responsible for this crime That report
created the greatest anxiety and corsterna-
ton among the members of the junta
They Immediately summoned some
American citizens who were in close asso-
citation with them, that there might be
discussion as to the best course to take.
All the members of the junta. with one ex-
ception, were prepared to issue statements
denying Indignantly all responsibility for
the tragedy and regulating the possibility
that such method of warfare could ever
have been suggested to people who were
fighting for their liberty.
Had these statements, some of which
had been prepared. been published they
would certainly have led to the charge in
Havana that the members of the Cuban
junta were protesting too much One of
the wisest and subtlest of all those who
nave devoted time and money to the cause
of Cuban independence advised strongly
against making any public statement and
ne urged his friends to permit him to pre-
pare an interview and cause it's publication
IN the name of the junta in New York city.
The interview was prepared and was made
pubic with the intention of Immediately
n in,
Satisfied That Explosion Was Acct
dental.
1T stated that the Cuban iunta were
thoroughly well satisfied both from expert
ence and by reason of information received
from Havana that the destruction of the
Maine was caused by an accidental explo-
sion or a spontaneous combustion which
reached the magazines 1t stated that des-
perdtely as the Cubans Were fighting for
hberty, they nevertheless were of Spanish
blood and would resent as imputation
upon their race any accusation that either
Spdnlards or Cubans could have purposely
compassed the destruction of the Maine
Furthermore, the interview stated that
the Cuban junta knew from its own ex-
per1ence that spontaneous combustion could
produce an accident of that kind since two
of the vessels which were sent to Cuba
since the revolution began were destroyed
In that manner.
Inc Junta Amazed.
When this interview was read it caused
the utmost amazement on the part of
most of the junta They knew or professed
to know that the two vessels which We're
destroyed We're blown up through the
agency of spies representing the authority
of Blanco. They knew, too, that informa-
ton had already come from Cuba that the
friends of free Cuba had already as they
believed, discovered a part of the Mot
which had the destruction of the Maine in
view.
But when the man of subtle intellect
That prepared this interview was asked
what he meant by it he said I meant to
save cuba and to save our friends there
That is the reason why the interview was
cabled to Blanco. 1t was the intention to
fasten the guilt upon certain Cubans to
try them summarily and execute them,
and in that way to impress the American
people with the idea that the Cubans were
beneath the rank of savages and were I'M
fit to waste any sympathy upon.
The junta received information that
convinced the members that this interview
had precisely the effect which was expect
ed by the brilliant man who prepared it.