Mr. Barker to Mr. Day.
No. 270.]
Sagua la Grande, December 13, 1897.
Sir: Confident of the desire of the Department to keep in touch with affairs under the new régime, I beg to submit the following:
In order either to qualify or confirm my No. 264, of the 20th instant, wherein I stated the claim made by the authorities that the people were cultivating the soil, rations issued daily to the needy, and protection given to the mills so as to grind the present crop was not in accordance with my observations, I have within the past few days visited five of the principal railroad towns in this consular district—viz, Santa Clara, Cruces, Esperanza, Jicotea, and Santo Domingo. The destitution is simply too harrowing to recite and must become intensified each day. The death rate for last month shows an increase of about 25 per cent.
In these towns I got my information from the mayors of each. From them I learned that while an issue of food, running from three to five days, had been made, beginning on the 28th ultimo, consisting of 3 ounces bacon or jerked beef and 6 ounces rice for adults, with half this allowance for children under 14 years, the pittance given was sufficient only for one-fourth to one-tenth of the starving. No further relief has been given up to date. On the contrary, the mayors of Santa Clara, Cruces, and Santo Domingo are authority for stating the Captain-General had ordered that after the 8th instant any issue of food to the "concentrados" be discontinued. I inclose herewith a clipping from a local paper of Santa Clara confirming this. I have also read it in more than one other Spanish journal.
The mayor of Santa Clara stated to me that the Captain-General a week since directed him to call on the commissary of the army for 5,000 rations for relief purposes, which he said was sufficient to feed the suffering people but for one day. This officer's answer was he could not do so, as all Government supplies on hand would be required to feed the army. The mayor stated, also, that in presenting this order to the military commander he was ordered by him under no circumstances to give food to anyone having relatives in the insurrection, which he informed me would exclude 75 per cent of the destitute. I know that in Sagua and other points orders for food have been given on the commissary departments of the army, but invariably refused, as being needed for the soldiers. I reiterate, however sincere be the authorities to provide for the large number of "concentrados" who dare not return to the country, the fact that they are utterly powerless to do so can not be disguised.
All efforts so far to obtain relief by popular subscription have met with signal failure. The Cubans are too poverty-stricken, while the Spaniards, who own the wealth, will contribute nothing.
In my recent trip I found that the Spanish soldiers are not only suffering for necessary food, but I was often appealed to by these pitiable creatures for medicine. One has only to look upon them to be assured of the needs complained of.
In view of the foregoing facts, known to me from personal investigation, I desire to renew the suggestion made to the Department in a previous dispatch, that the dire destitution and distress of * * * the people * * * appeals for immediate assistance to a charitable, Christian people, with which I sincerely hope the Department may not deem ill-advised to acquaint the people of the United States, when such a response will be made as will bring succor to a starving populace.
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