The San Francisco call., 1906-09-30
Taft Takes Over Rule
Of Cuba

Continued from Page 20, Column Z.
army which will land on the island
will be more completely equipped and
far more thoroughly organized than
the force which went to Cuba to fight
Spain in 1898. 1t is the expectation
of the chief of staff that one regiment
will be landed on Cuban soil by next
Saturday
Preparations for the military occu-
patton of Cuba moved at a rapid rate
after the receipt of a dispatch from
Secretary Taft urging the sending of
an army to Cuba All the organizations
making up the first expedition arranged
by the general staff were advised of the
request of the Secretary of War. and
Quartermaster General Humphrey and
his assistants began to hire transports
and order supplies delivered immedi-
ately at Newport News, where the first
expedition will be mobilized Sufficient
supplies TO last $500 men for thirty
days are Leing rushed to the point with
full speed. Quartermaster's depots at
Philadelphia, Boston, New York and
many other cities are being drawn upon
and Captain Smiley of the Fifteenth
Infantry has been ordered to Newport
News, where he will secure storehouses
and look after the supplies.
IN CHARGE OF EMBARKATION.
Brigadier General T. J. Wint, COM
manding the Department of the Mis-
souri, was ordered to Newport News,
where he will assume full charge of the
embarkation of troops. He is to re-
main there indefinitely, and will look
after a second and third expedition in
case the Government finds it necessary
to send a larger force into Cuba
Colonel F. D. Crowder of the Judge
Advocate Generals Office, who is to be
Secretary Taft's legal adviser in the or
ganization of the new government In
Cuba, left Washington today for Ha-
vana, with a secretary and several as
sistants, who are to be with him in his
work.
Full details of the organization of
the first expedition were made public
by the chief of staff tonight. Lieuten-
ant Colonel W. W. Wetherspoon is to
be chief of the expedition, and he will
have as his assistants the following
officers of the general staff corps Ma
| jor William A. Mann, Major Francis j.
Herman, Major David Gaillard, Captain
! George w. Read, Captain Charles L.
Moncher and Captain John w. Furlong.
The military secretary of the expe-
! dition will be Captain William G. Haan
! of Wi al m
! C. Langfitt is to be engineer officer The
! inspector general will be Major e. S.
/ Greble.
/ Secretary Taft te1egraphed today for
! Major Jefferson r. Kean of the med
/ ical department and Frank Mcintyre,
captain of the Nineteenth Infantry,
who will sail for Havana at the ear
/ liest possible moment Captain McIn-
| tyre has been temporarily in charge of
the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the
War Department, and has had expert
| ence both in Cuba and the Philippines.
TO JOIN EXPEDITION.
One hundred and twenty-five mem
| bers of the signal corps from Fort
! Omaha, Neb have been ordered to join
the expedition and will be under the
command Of Captain George S. Gibbs.
In addition to the troops originally or
! dered to Newport News, the Four
| teenth Battery of Field Artillery, now
at Fort Sheridan. Ill, also will join the
! expedition. New guns for all the
| troops which may be sent to Cuba are
| in readiness, and as each of the or
| ganizations arrives at Newport News
| it will be equipped with the latest i'm
proved army rife. This has a knife
bayonet now generally in use in the
army 1t was demonstrated in the
! Russo Japanese war that the rod bay
! onet was not success. and conse-
/ quently the general staff has decided
| to abandon IL.
Senor Don Gonzalo de Quesada, the
Minister of Cuba appointed by Presi-
! dent Palma, has rendered his resigna-
| tion to the provisional Government of
! Cuba. 1t is stated that Quesada has
not taken this step as act of resent
ment or as an evidence of any i'll ieel-
| ing toward President Roosevelt or the
American administration, but that he
considers it his duty to do so in order
| to facilitate the execution of the Pres
| ident's policy toward Cuba.
TAKES OVER GOVERNMENT
| HAVANA, Sept 29.-jWith far less
ostentation than accompanies the ac-
| cession of a new municipal administra-
| tion the Government of Cuba was for
mally taken over today by William H.
Taft, Secretary of War of the United
States. who in a proclamation clothed
IN kindly and diplomatic tone in
dicative of the policy he would pursue
declared himself Provisional Governor
of the island. Promptly at noon Gov
ernor Taft, Assistant Secretary of State
Bacon and Captain Mccoy, Governor
Tafts military aid de camp. called Of
fcially at the palace and paid their re-
spects to the retiring President.
Ignoring President Palmas message
to Congress Friday, in which he wrong
od na tcrcf<, - A
lean medfators, Governor Taft spoke
kindly to Senior Palma, to whom he
said the people of Cuba owed an un-
questionable debt of gratitude. Presi-
dent Palmas brief reply was devoted
entirely to an expression of relief for