Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-28
How It Was Obtained and Made
q Public. -.
4 CUBAN SECREfARY'S FIND
Realized Its Value and Brought It
to This County.
THE MINISTER'S DISMISSAL
=

IT will be remembered how the avowals Of
undimfnshed friendship between the United
States and Spain were repeatedly being ex-
changed just. before tbe war, despite the IN
cendiary utterances in Congress and the
passive resistance offered BY the Spanish
authorities at Havana to the distribution Of
the rations that the people of the's nlteo
States were contributing for the relief @ Iie
starving ''reconcentrados." and how. at this
juncture. certain letter. written by Mr..
Dupuy de LONE. the Spanish minister at
Washington. TO Mr.. Canalejas. minister
of the Spanish parliament. who had gone to
Cuba to study the situation there was
made public. it's contents causing a great
sensation.
Cause of De Lome's Removal.
This letter. wherein the President of the
United States was described as a low-grade
politician. was reproduced in fac-simile in
the newspapers. After Mr.. Dupuy de
Lome's acknowledgment of its identity the
matter was taken up by the administration
and referred to Madrid, coupled with re-
quest to remove the minister. who thereby
became persona non grata, and who re-
ceived his passports without awaiting the
reply from Madrid. He aimed that he had
demanded his passports and presented his
resignation before this step was taken; but
this matters little in the affair. as there is
no question OF doubt ABOUT the removal
being solely due to the discovery Of the let
ter. In this he had committed himself in a
manner allowing Of no explanation. it
was a breach of diplomatic courtesy which
could not be tolerated, especially at period
when public opinion was already SO stirred
over the Maine explosion it had become diff
ficut to keep it within bounds.
Many theories have been expounded re-
garding how this letter was obtained. Some
claimed that it could only have been Sc
cured by the secret service officials at the
United States post office. Others denied
TINS, as letters of that character were sell
dom forwarded through the mails The gem
eral opinion. however was in favor of be-
lieVing that that letter had been taken at
Havana from the mails by some Cuban spy
working at the post office. this belief being
due to the certain knowledge that under
the new autonomist regime then being In
1rouueed IN cuba a considerable number of
Cupan sympathiZers had obtained posts in
the government offices, so as to be better
able TO come in touch with the Spanish Off
Gals. and ind out the movements of the
troops. which were being constantly dis
cussed in all Spanish circles
Who Obtained 1t.
1t is now claimed that the person who
obtained the letter was not in the employ
of the Spanish government; he was. in fact
one of the many people in Cuba looking for
work. The story goes that Canalejas. the
spanish minister had arrived in Havana
after staying some days in Washington and
was 50 busy calling and receiving calls
from the officials. political party leaders,
office seekers and friends that for some
time after arriving there he could not fad
the time to attend to his correspondence
At the end of two weeks his mail matter
had 50 accumulated that he realized that he
could do nothing without a secretary, and
he asked his friend Amblard leader of the
. Spanish reformist party, to secure him
person for this purpose, Offering him s10D
! for the work
: call cd
j mended for the position. and he presented
himself at the Ingla terra Hotel. and after
! the usual prelimnares was engaged by the
/ crown minister His first work Canalejas
| Instructed him. would be to assert the LEI
! tiers into groups and classify them-political
/ friends. official letters, social. private, Office
seekers etc, He had just commenced his
work under his employers supervision when
| a political friend called and Canalejas left
! the room to receive his visitor.
| The young man proceeded with his work.
| and having finished with the opened letters
| he took up the parcel of mail that had not
| yet been touched. He came upon I'M
| opened letter, sealed with the stamp of the
! Spanish legation at Washington: ne wanted
| for a while. but the minister did not return,
| and after d few minutes hesitation he tore
| open the envelope and read the letter. After
| doing this Escoto realized that it was of SO
| great an Importance that 1t would be sim
| ply impossible for him to tell Canalejas that
he had opened it by mistake. He read the
| letter over several times, and making up
| his mind to use 1t to advantage he put 1t
into his pocket.
EscOtO's Plan.
For four consecutive days his work with
| CanaIejas went on, and in the meanwhile
| the secretary obtained an Introduction to
! Lascote the revolutionary delegate in Ha-
| vana afterward mayor Of that city. He
| asked for so to go to New York and take
| the letter in person. The matter was con-
| sidered and the general opinion among the
Havana delegates was not very favorable.
| None of them had heard of the man. His
| father, they discovered, was a conductor on
| an English railroad company in The island,
but nothing more appeared to be known
| about the son. At the same time 1t was
out of the question to allow chance like
that to escape without an effort being made
to bring the letter before the government
of the United States.
| A solution was presented: the man would
| leave the island with the $50 he had asked
| for. but he would be accompanied by per-
| son in touch with the junta, and, to avoid
his being able to communicate with doubt
| full characters, he would be taken to port
| where the danger was least. This plan
| was accepted and the $50 was subscribed
| by five of the delegation EscotO, accom-
(, panied by Cuban of the name of Sar-
| rachaga. left for Cardenas, and on landing
| in New York they were met by Mr.. Horatio
| Rubens, the member of the American bar
| who made himself famous during the Cr-
|
| tering expeditions denounced to the Wash
| ington authorities by the Spanish minister.
| Brought 1t Before the President.
| Once relieved of the letter. the rest was
I comparatively easy. After having photo
! graph taken of the letter Mr. Rubens, Mr..
| Estrada Palma and Mr.. Gonzalo de Quesa-
i da found no difficulty in bringing 1t before
| the President. Escoto was taken to WASH
| ington and carefully cross-examined in ecu
nection with the whole affair. Every hing
! appearing to cOrroborate his. stat snen,s,
| and the handwriting being undoubtad
/ Dupuy de Lome's. the matter became an
! affair of state of great moment. The press
| was informed. the letter published in
! every newspaper in tho United States, and
| was cabled to every capital in Europe
| This is the most circumstantial story vet
| told of the publication of the De LONE let
| ter. and 1t bears the impress of truth.
Ladies' as Special Guests.
An entertainment was given by the mems
club of the Pro-Cathedral of ST. Mark
| Thursday night at the parish hall adjoin-
ing the church. corner of Sd and A streets