28th Apri, Unrrep States Senator Proctor, of Vermont, who returned to Washington on the 13th ult. from a trip to Cuba, made a long report in the Senate four days after his return of what he had seen, Although, according to his own statement, his trip was entirely unofficial and of his own motion, and not suggested by any one, his report was generally regarded as having semi-official character, and he stated that he had mentioned to. President McKinley before he started that he "contemplated the trip and was told that there was no objection to it. We wish we could find room for a complete republican tion of his report, for it shows conclnsively that the United States have good reason, in the cause of humanity, to interfere between Spain and her rebellious subjects.
There are six provinces in the island of Cubs, each stretching across the island from north to south, B ning from the West, they are Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago de Cuba. Senator Proctor visited the four western provinces which constitute about half the island, The two eastern provinces are entirely in tha hands of the rebels, except the few fortified towns, and are known as "Cuba Libre." In the town of Havana itself everything is as usual, except for the presence of numerous bodies of soldiers doing guard and police duty. Outside Havana it is neither peace nor It is desolation and distress, misery and starvation, Every town and village is surrounded by a trock (trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed on a plan new to me, the dirt being thrown up on the inside and a barbed-wire fence on the outer side of the trench. The purpose of these troches is to keep the reconcentrados in as well as to keep the insurgents out. From all the surrounding country the people have been driven into these fortified towns, and held there to subsist as they can. They are virtually pene yards, and not unlike one in general appearance, except the walls are not so high and strong, but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldier's rifle, to keep in the ye reconcentrado women and children. Every railroad station is within one of these troches, and has an armed Every train' has an armoured freight car, loopholed for mus-kerry, and filled with soldiers and with, I observed usually, and was informed is always the case, a pilot engine a mile or so in advance. There are frequent blockhouses inclosed by a troche and with a guard along the railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or habitation between these fortified towns and villages and throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to avery limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have not been able to go and drive the people to the towns and burn their dwellings. I saw no house or hut in the four hundred miles of railroad rides from Pinar del Rio province in the west across the full width of Havana and Matanzas provinces, and to Sagua La Grande on the north shore and to Cienfuegos on the south shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish troches. There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate vicinity of the towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold in these four western provinces just what their army sits on.
West of Havana is the tobacco country, enst a sugar region, Nenrly all the sugar mills are destroyed; the few that are running are turned into forts and are fully guarded. The country people in the four western towns, about 400,000 in number, have been driven into the towns, and these are the reconcentrados. It was by General Wey-ler's orders that these pour people, farmers, land-owners, tenants owning more or less stock, or working on the larger estates and cultivating little patches of ground, had their houses and huts burnt over their heads, and were driven into the towns The first clause of Weyler's order reads as follows: First—All the inhabitants of the country or outside of the line of fortifications of the towns shall, within the period of eight days, concentrate themselves in the town so Gccupied by the troops. Any individual who, after the expiration of this period, is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a rebel and tried such." Many doubtless did not learn of this order. Others failed to grasp its i ing. Its execution was left ucrillas to drive in all that ud I was informed that in many cases a torch was applied to their homes with no notice, and the inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on, their stock and other belongings being appropriated by the guerillas. When they reached the town they were allowed to build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and vacant places within the troches, and left to live if they could. Their huts are about ten by fifteen feet in size, and for want of space are usually crowded together very closely. They have no floor but the ground, and no furniture, and after a year's Wear but little clothing, except such stray substitutes as they can extemporise. With large families or with more than one in this little space, the commonest sanitary provisions are impossible. Conditions are unmentionable in this respect. Torn from their homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water, and foul food, or none, what wonder that one-half have died and that one-quarter of the living are so diseased that they cannot be saved No pen, says Senator Proctor, cat exaggerate the horrors of the hospitals.
to. the Los Passos hospital in Havana itself, he says: "I saw it when four hundred women and children were lying on the stone floors in an indescribable state of emaciation.and disease, many with the scantiest covering of rags, and such rags, and sick children, naked as they came into the world, And the conditions in the other cities are even worse.'
The total population in Cuba is about 1,600,000. Of these there are nearly 200,000 Spaniards, living principally in the towns and. cities. There are about 1,000,000 Cibans, white, of pure Spanish blood, like the Spaniards, usually dark in complexion, bnt oftener lighter, or blonder, than the Spaniards, There are something less than 500,000 of negro or mixed blood, he percentage of coloured to white has been steadily diminishing for more than fifty years, and is not now rare than one-fourth of the total. "The Cuban farmer and labourer is by nature peaceable, kind, gay, hospitable, light-hearted, and improvident, Ihe coloured people seem to be by nature quite the equal mentally and physically of the race in this country. Certainly physically they are by far the larger and stronger race on the island. 'I'here is little or no race prejudice, and this has doubtless been greatly to their advantage. Eighty-five years ago there were one-half as many free negroes as slaves, and this proportion was slowly increasing until emancipation."
Out of the 200,000 Spanish soldiers that have been sent to Cuba—mostly very young conscripts, small, and of poor physique—there are now about 60,000 fit for duty. Phey are poorly supplied, and want the material for a field campaign. The rebel army in the field numbers about 30,000, well armed but poorly supplied with ammunition, About one-third of them are coloured, and they are splendid fighters. 'I'he dividing line is clearly marked, "It is practically the entire Cuban population on one side, and the Spanish army and the Spanish citizens on the other. Ido not count the autonomists in this division, as they are so far too inconsiderable in numbers to be worth counting." Senator Proctor's conclusion is as follows T enquired in regard to autonomy of men of wealth and men as prominent in business as any in the cities of Havana, Matanzas, and Sagua—bankers, merchants, lawyers, and autonomist officials, some of them Spanish born, but Cuban bred, one prominent Englishman, several of them known as autonomists and several of them telling me they were still believers in autonomy if practicable, but without exception they replied that it was too Into for that. Some favoured a United States protectorate, some annexation, some free Cuba; not one has been counted favouring the insurrection at,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.