The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-05-20
Paper Asks If Alger
Wants War.
Matters in a Very Unsatisfactory
State On Island.

Havana, May l9.-Havana 10 In q Ter
ment again over the idea that the WASH
ington administration has determined to
take the arms of the Cuban troops and to
retain them in military possession. This
view of the latest news from Washington
has been telsgraphed to the various cit
les.
Governor. General. Brooke is thus far
unaware, save through the press kilograms
Of dissatisfaction on the part of Gen.
Alger, secretary of war, with his (Gen.
Brooke's) plan to have the arms deposit
ed in the care Of the mayors of the mu-
inequalities; nor has he received any other
inkling of the secretary's purpose to lay
the matter before President Mckinley.
Consequently unless instructions to the
con trary are received from Washington
the governor generals order respecting
the distribution of the 81, ,000. 900 as mod
flied, will be issued tomorrow. The score
tary Of war has been informed as to the
substance of this order in the usual course
of business.
Havana's midday papers publish the
Washington news, some of them COM
menting editorisIly upon 1t. As the point
about where the arms are to be kept ap-
pears to be thought of vital Importance
in Washington, the conviction announced
there that the mayors cannot be trusted
with them. is Il cause of fresh discomfort.
lust at the moment when the various
complications appeared to be unrayelled.
The mayors are the appointees of the gov
srnor general; and when the military
assembly dissolved. they were made Its
1 %4wrna rNyaf ri hn
tiole of the agreement between Gen.
Gomez and Mr.. Robert =. Porter, Presi-
dent MoKinley's special representative,
runs as follows:
1.-The Cubans shall surrender their
arms to the Cuban assembly or to its
representatives.
Gen. Gomez, who at the time of COM
ing to the agreement with Mr.. Porter,
had not quarrelled with the assembly.
| insisted upon this point Since the quar-
rel he has again raised the point repeated
| Iy, saying also that Mr.. Porter brought
full written authority from President
| MCKINLEY and, In the Presidents name
agreed that the arms should go into the
| custody Of the assembly or Its represen-
| tatives.
At Monday nights meeting of the So
| ciety of Veterans of lndependence-orga-
nized by former members of the assembly
the speakers dilated upon article 4, as
l
potentiary having agreed to deposit the
arms with the representatives of the as
sembly, while through the oornivance OF
| Gomez they We're to be surrendered to the
American army.
La Discussion says: Secretary Alger
appears to wish to provoke q conflict
here. He Is more distinguished in the
United States as u business man than a
politician and his relations with certain
syndicates are well known. be opposes
everything that Cuba wants and favors
every thing that would cause feeling and
provoke excitement. His attitude
prompts the Question-What does he
want2 Does he desire war heie similar
to that in the Philippines? We are forced
TO believe that he only approves what Ii
unsatisfactory to Cuba. ="
Cubans of prominence object TO talking
for publication on the subject, but wher
ever they have heen interviewed they say
without exception that such an order as
IL referred to In the press dispatches from
Washington would cause much trouble
and would still further separate Cuba
from the United States.
The manifesto of Gen. Gomez issued
last evening Is unsatisfactory to the mill
tary administration because its author
failed to disband the army. He had beer
asked to include q paragraph directing
the various commissioners to dissolve
and had said he was in doubt as tt
whether he was authorized to disband thu
army, promising to reflect upon the mat
ter His attitude at headquarters yester
dny was quite different from his previou
bearing and 1T soon became obvious tina
he wished to discontinue giving any ad
vice, even on the subject of the paymen
| n the trQ0Da.