Arizona republican., 1899-07-14
CARRANzA'S LETTER
Man Who Says He Stole if
 Makes a Statement.
Montreal Man Says He Distorted F1iSSiVe to Suit His Own Pur. pOSeS-Had Letter Forged WhiCk He Submitted.

Montreal, July 13.-The Montreal Star of today publishes the statement
 of George Frederick Bell of TOT La
 gauchetiere street, Montreal, in which
 Bell says that on May 2S. 1898, he
 stole the famous Carranza letter from
 the house, 42 Tupper street, occupied i by Ramon Carranza and Senor Du-
 bose, ex-attache of the Spanish lega-
 ton at Washington. Bell asserts that
 he carried the letter to Chief Wiikie
 of the United States secret service | at Washington, under whose orders
 he was working, and that to translate l it Wilkie summoned from New York
 a member of the Cuban junta, Con
 zalo Quesada, and an Italian named
 Cavannah. Bell adds that Quesada
 and Wilkie together inserted in the
 original letter and extracted from 1t
 certain sentences and words, which
 changed altogether the tenor of tHe
 stolen missive. Having thus prepared
 the letter, Bell swears that Cavannah,
 using Spanish stationery supplied to
 him by MT. Wilkie, forged document, which the head of the secret service handed to tue state department as the letter stolen in Montreal
 The Star has been supplied by Bell
 with a copy of the original trans1a-
 ton of the Carranza letter. That the
 Star prints side by side with the one given out by Mir Wi:kie to his su- periors in the government and to the
 press. The differences in the letters are many and quite striking, but the most important change made is where the Wi1kie version says in so many
 words that CarranZa is at the head of a Spanish spy system in Montreal,
 while the letter supplied to the Star by Bell says that the writer is credit ed by the Americans with continuing spy system in Montreal without any admission whatever as to the fact. The other changes hinge on the criti- cism of Admiral Cervera and deal with admissions Of spanish weakness. Both criticism and admission are lacking in the Bell letter, though they apper in the Wilkie version.
 Bell declares that he was engaged on May 23, 1898, by MT. Wilkie to do work in Montreal; he came here, stole the letter and returned to Washington, handing it to Mir. N:lkie. He again returned to Montreal on July 6, 1898.
 He did more work about the Spanish consulate there. In August Bell was taken i'll and fer the following three months lay in the general hospital, meanwhile he wrote MT. Wilkie, ask ing payment for his services. Mr. Wilkie, according to Bell, had tod him that the letter would be worth S1,0O6 and expenses when he placed the stolen document in the officers hands in Washington. In response to Bells demands for money, however, MT. Wilkie referred the sick man to Jospeh Kellert, a local detective and chief of the metropolitan bureau of Montreal, who had furnished Bell with operatives to assist him, but who, Bell says, played a secondary part in all that took place in Montreal
 Bells statement is sworn to before | a notary public here.
 kellert denied to Bell flat he had l received any money from Washington | to make a settlement, and | referred Bell back to MT. Wilkie. Hav- ing threatened to expose the matter | Bell swears that there came to him in an official envelope from Washington with $50 without any written com That was all he received for his share in the whole series of transactions; and, despite the fact that he is liable to arrest and imprison- ment for having stolen the letter, he has decided to expose the whole trans action, in order to show how unjustly he has been treated.
 The sentence alleged by Bell to kaxe been interpolated by W1lkie into the Carranza letter, declaring that the Spaniard was at the head of 6 spy system in Montreal was the chief point raised by Secretary of State Say when he demanded through Sir Julian Pauncefote the expulsion of the 'paniards, Carranza and Dubose from | Montreal. It will be recalled that ( Jarranza strenOusly protested that
  n the original letter, but the British { government satisfied that the letter vas genuine as shown to the British at Washington, at once instructed the premier of Canada, Sir Vilfred Laurier, to instruct Dubose ( nd Carranza to leave Canada forth [ with, and that the Spaniards did, al hough protesting against the mani- I est injustice of the order, in view of what was actually written. T AS soon as Carranza reached Lon 3 on he entered an action in the courts gainst the premier of Canada for un- t ust expulsion; and the evidence offer | 'eaTing CT that case