The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-26
WEYLER UNLIMBERS
HIS WORD BATTERY
The Butcher Of Cuba Claims
That He Was Lied
About.

NEW YORK, Nov. 16-A dispatch to the
Herald from Paris says:
Gen. Weyler has emerged from his shell
and fires some hot shCt at Anglo Saxons
in general in an interview given to the
Figaro's correspondent. He opened by
saying that he once more protested
against the apominabie reputation Gre
ated for him by the American and Eng
lish journals for political purposes. He
continued:
when L was Governor General of Gu
ba and was defending the sovereignty of
Spain in that colony, the least of my acts
of war was distorted by the press of the
English-speaking nations. L never trou-
bled myself about that, for l always dIo
only my duty as a soldier, without lend
ing to rumorS OF what was going on
outside my province.
Il have noticed since with sorrow
that these lying stories, these calumnies,
have found an echo in Europe. 1t has re-
quired the events in the Transvaal and
the stories of the real cruelties committed
upon the Beers by Lord Roberts and the
English for European military writer's TO
acknowledge that l never conducted my
self in Cuba as the British have done in
South Africa. People are now beginning
to do me justice.
1.-THE truth Of the matter is that / car
ried on the war in Cuba with the rigor
which war requires. You cannot run
tits of courtesy and generosity with rebel
and half-civilized negroes like our revolt
ing CubanS, who were accustomed to mas
sacre, in horrible fashion, the soldiers
they had captured.
! People should have seen our poor Span
ish soldiers, those brave little soldiers
of IS or 20 years of age, lighting with the
Cubans, to understand the real horror of
seen the excuses of which the Cubans
were guilty in the treatment of their pris-
oners, to have seen them torturing them
and putting them through slow martyr
dom and mutilating their dead bodies to
understand the peculiar character of that
war.
| But never mind that 1 did my duty
as a soldier and am ready to do it again.
My best reply to my traducers is the es-
TEEN and affection in which / am held by
the whole Spanish army-the marks of
devotion which have always been lavish
ed upon me by my companions in arms,
both those in Cuba and those of the PENN
sula.'
| Explaining his presence in the Liberal
party, General Weyler remarked that it
was the result of recent events.
IF Canovas were living / should be at
his side. l should be a soldier pure and
simple. But there are cases when The
safety of ones country obliges one to
stifie ones feenngs of repugnance and to
undertake a task which one would prefer
4 to leave in the hands of others.
IF 1 had been able to gather together
a strong conservative party after the
death of Canovas 1 should have prevented
the loss of Cuba. At the head, of the
Spanish troops which were then in the
island 1 should have driven the Americans
into the sea. The hasty levies of Ameri-
cans would never have been able to cope
with the Spaniards. / should never have
asked for feet to be sent to me. My re-
sources down there Tin Cuba) were quite
ample.
! General Blanco made terrible mistakes
He concentrated all his troops in Havana
instead of adopting tactics which would
have permitted him to devote his effort:
to the points threatened by the Ameri
leans. 1t would have been easy to save
Santiago by despatching their reinforce
ments at an earlier stage and with great
er rapidity.
good of crying over split milk? Politics
lost us our colonies. No blame whatever
can attach to the army. All that it die
was to obey orders. 1t was in no wise re-
sponsible for our disasters.
To-day, If it be necessary for the goo6
OF Spain for me to give my assistance anC
my personal support to political party
L will certainly do so. If the Liberal par
" needs me to reconstitute and under
take campaign in conformity with it.
traditions of liberty and progress | will
give my help to the Liberal party, but
VIII consent to be a politician for six o.
eight months only. Immediately after
ward L Will once again become a soldieI
that and nothing more.
1T is my opinion that if Marshal Mar
tinez Campos had remained purely an(
simply soldier his fame would hay,
been all the greater"
So far the Carlist movement is con
cerned, General Weyler says it is doome,
to failure, particularly in Catalonia
"Carlism," said he, mo longer ha:
many partisans in Catalonia and the rea
son is this: The peasants and the peopl.
living in the country We're generally anC
are still more inclined to Carlist idea.
than all the others. Now the greater
part of the agricultural districts and par
ticularly the wine-growing districts hav,
become, owing to the revival of the vine
yards of France and to the phylloxera
which has been prevalent in Spain sine,
ilSyo-industrial districts. The peasant ha,
become an artisan and from Carlist h,
mas developed into Socialist Republican
tinged, 1t may be, with anarchism. Con.
lsequently Don Carlos will not find him in.
lclined to follow his flag
Il believe the present Carlist move.
ment to be absolute failure. If / am mis-
taken and there should be a rising SC
much the worse. Measures of strong re.
preston will be necessary. 1t must he
Istifed without the loss of a moment and
with the most pitiless energy l will see
to that"
/