ound to cut the
filibuster off by sea, while the coast-guard did the work on land. The
Cubans, however, beat off both their foes and landed the cargo safely.

News of a battle near Havana has been telegraphed to Key West, but the
press censor has forbidden the details to be published. For this reason
it is believed to have been a Cuban victory, with heavy losses on the
Spanish side.

* * * * *

There is some very important news about Hawaii this week.

A treaty, whereby Hawaii is to be annexed to the United States, has been
prepared, approved by the President, signed by the representatives of
both governments, and sent to the Senate for consideration.

The way it all came about was this.

We have been telling you from week to week about the angry feeling that
has been growing between Hawaii and Japan.

Last week we told you how threatening the Japanese Minister had become,
and that he hinted that diplomatic relations between the two countries
would be severed.

The Hawaiian Government became very much alarmed at this, and the two
gentlemen who had been sent to the United States to try and bring about
the annexation were instructed to go once more to our Government and beg
that something be done before it was too late.

_Annexing_ means joining to. You know what an annex to a house is--that
it is a few extra rooms built beside the house, and joined permanently
to it. When one country annexes another it makes it part of itself. The
new lands are permanently joined to the old, and are regarded as a part
of the whole.

President McKinley has expressed himself as in favor of annexing Hawaii,
and has been considering the matter for some time. He did not wish that
anything should interfere with the Tariff Bill, and for this reason kept
Hawaiian matters in the background, along with Cuban affairs, until the
Tariff question should be settled.

The trouble with Japan has forced him to consider Hawaiian Annexation
before he intended to, and so the treaty has been drawn up.

He is more willing to give the matter his attention at the present time,
because he finds that Hawaiian affairs are really delaying the Tariff
Bill.

A great deal of our sugar is imported from the Hawaiian Islands, and
under a commercial treaty made between Hawaii and the United States this
sugar is brought into our country free of duty.

There is a clause in the treaty which says that the President can
terminate