Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/34



Havana, November 17, 1897.

I have the honor to transmit herewith several copies, with a translation, of a decree of the Governor-General respecting the "reconcentrados," and the conditions under which they may return to their homes; and also a copy and translation of an article from La Lucha of the 15th instant, reporting an interview with me.

I am, etc.,

Consul-General.

Don Ramon y Erenas, Marquis of Pena Plata, governor-general, captain-general, and general in chief of the army of this island.

Decided to afford the protection due by the Government to the country people concentrated in the towns, I have procured, by all means within the reach of the authority, to better the condition to which the rural population of this island has been reduced, more than by the direct effort of the war measures previously adopted, as a natural consequence of a violent and unjust insurrection, which, having imposed itself on this country, made itself felt from the first moment as an attempt against the national sovereignty and as a work of devastation of the country, but especially as the result of extreme passions let loose against the majority of the Cuban population, honest, active, and loyal, contended with the progress of its increasing culture, satisfied with the prosperity attained by its arts, its agriculture, industry, and commerce, proud of its race and nationality, and which after having undergone without disturbance the transformation from the work of slaves to that of freemen, offered to the world, as a special case of history, one of the most beautiful triumphs of liberty, united with the cause of order, was resolved to preserve in the noble purpose of obtaining through the evolution of ideas and by the peaceful struggles of law the consecration of its aspirations within the Spanish sovereignty.

To that purpose I have directed all the efforts which I have deemed opportune and pertinent, from ordering in a decided and conclusive manner that the reconcentrados be furnished with a daily ration and that the sick in the hospitals be duly attended, to ordering by a recent decree (bando) the reorganization of agricultural and industrial labors, as well as its normalization, to the end that without obstacles nor difficulties the poor people, specially, should be able to find means of subsistence, mitigation for their economic situation, and a possible remedy for their misfortunes.

The work of absolutely suspending the concentration and of remedying immediately the evils derived therefrom not being possible, unless it should be pretended that a crowd, composed largely of women and children, be launched into the fields, exposed, therefore, to suffer even greater evils than that which they may experience by remaining in the towns and which would surely give rise to as serious censures

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