No. 688.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, January 31, 1874. (Received March 20.)
Sir: I have the honor to state for your information that, by reference to my dispatches, it will be found that this government had revoked the authority given by General de Rodas to subordinate commanders to shoot prisoners. General Prim condemned the practice, and as minister of war forbade it. Mr. Becerra, as minister of the colonies, in a published allocution, denounced these barbarities. Mr. Moret, his successor, in his instructions to Count Valmaseda, a copy of which I forwarded to you, expressly directed that any officer subordinate to the captain-general found guilty of such acts should be punished. And General Cordova, the last minister of war under the late King, in his general orders to Captain-General Ceballos, an extract from which was also sent to you, emphatically disapproved of measures of exceptional severity toward prisoners.
It appears, therefore, that the conduct of the authorities at Santiago finds no justification in the orders of this government, unless the instructions given to Generals Pieltain and Jovellar were essentially different from those received by their predecessors, and that in this, as in other instances, the Cuban authorities availed themselves of their traditional privilege of disobeying the home government.
It is asserted, without contradiction, that the government promoted General Burriel in October last, and the publication of the order is now demanded by influential journals as a just recompense for his services at Santiago.
I have, &c,