er before the Queen
Regent.
He declares that General Weyler is indeed a monster of cruelty, and that
the descriptions which have reached us are absolutely correct. He
asserts that General Weyler has no loyalty or love of his country, that
his one aim is to make money for himself, and to do this he will cheat
his Government, and commit any crimes and cruelties that are necessary
to cover up his wrong-doings.
Mr. Barroeta has letters and documents to prove his accusations against
General Weyler, and a full account of the way the war news is
manufactured in Cuba under the General's directions.
According to his statements Weyler has a friend in the Spanish Cortes,
who cables him when the Government is getting angry at his want of
success, and advises him to send news of a big battle. Weyler then sends
out a few men to seize a Cuban hospital, or murder a defenceless family
of peasants, and as soon as the work is done, cables the news of his
great victory to Spain.
Mr. Barroeta says that Cuba is lost to Spain if General Weyler is not
recalled. He declares that the revolution is now stronger than ever,
that none of the provinces are pacified as Weyler says they are, and
that the only place where there is any semblance of peace is Santiago de
Cuba, and that only because it is under the rule of the Cubans, and is
in fact Free Cuba.
* * * * *
Mr. Calhoun has returned from his mission in Cuba, but we must wait a
few days before we can expect to hear the results.
A report, however, comes from Havana, that one hundred citizens of
Matanzas have sent an appeal for help to our Government, and have based
it on the misery which they say Mr. Calhoun and General Lee saw with
their own eyes.
They speak in a most pitiable way of the hunger and privations suffered
by the people who have been driven into the towns; from the description
given in the paper, these poor souls are now so thin and weak that they
can hardly drag themselves through the streets to beg for bread. They
tell of poor little children dying of starvation in the streets, of the
sufferings of the poor parents who cannot get food to keep life in their
little ones' bodies, and of this crowd of suffering, starving people,
wandering homeless through the streets begging for the charity which no
one can spare them.
The paper in which this is set forth is brought to a close with an
earnest appeal to the United States to send food to
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