Mr. Lee to Mr. Day.
No. 773.]
Havana, February 10, 1898. (Received February 15.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a statement of the condition of some of the small towns in the neighborhood of this city. These reports are made to me by a person I sent to those places for the purpose of ascertaining the numbers and condition of the destitute and starving people in and about said towns. His name is not signed to the report for obvious reasons.
I am, etc.,
Consul-General.
[Inclosure in No. 773.]
MELENA DEL SUR.
The unhealthy conditions of this town and the total want of resources make it completely impossible for the mayor to remedy the present miserable situation the people, who die in great numbers from starvation, fever, and smallpox, which is vastly spreading, owing to the lack of vaccination virus or the necessary funds to acquire it with.
There are other towns in the same conditions, as, for example, Guines, Catalina, and Madruga, whose situation could be, in a small degree, relieved if the country people were allowed to leave the town freely in search of food, which is very scarce. In some towns this is entirely prohibited; in others they are obliged to pay a tax, and, not having anything to eat, how can they pay a tax? In every town you visit the first thing you notice is the unhealthy condition of the men, and their total want of physical strength, which prevents them even from making an effort to procure the means of support.
CATALINE DE GÜINES.
The condition of the reconcentrados in this town is very sad and desperate. There are no "zones for cultivation," and they are therefore not allowed even with a military pass to leave the town in search of work or food, which latter is so scarce that one must walk 4 or 5 miles before finding a sweet potato. Among these poor there are many who have not even the meanest hut for a dwelling place and who find nobody willing to help them in the least thing.
In these districts the liberty given by General Blanco to the reconcentrados is a farce.
GÜINES TOWN.
The land near the town which comprises the "zone for cultivation" has been rented by four Spaniards, who have done this by means of their wealth and influence in the present situation. They employ the few reconcentrados who are able to work, paying them 30 or 40 cents a day. Nobody can leave the town in search of work without a pass from the military commander, which pass is good for a month only and costs 20 cents. These workmen have to leave the town at 6 in the morning, and not being able to take the meals with them, are obliged to work until 6 in the evening without any nourishment. The same thing happens to all those who go in search of food. The women who leave the town in search of vegetables, even on their own farms, which are now completely abandoned, are sometimes deprived of them on their way back by the guerrillas.
In fifteen days 200 reconcentrados have died in Guines from starvation and total lack of resources. Many of the sick sleep on the floor and in the piazzas.
One of the few real protectors of the reconcentrados, in fact a heroic one, is a young man named José Amohedo, whose father and mother have died attending to the suffering poor, and who himself has given up eight houses that belonged to him as dwelling places for the reconcentrados, all the contents of a grocery store that he possessed, and who is actually as destitute as they are, but always attending to those who suffer.
[Telegram.]
General Lee to Mr. Day.
Captain-General returned yesterday; met with no success of any sort. Spaniards everywhere unfriendly; rumors of coming demonstration
