[Inclosure in No.
81.—Translation.]
Interpellation in the Còrtes.
[From La Epoca, April 2,
1878.]
Señor Salamanca y Negrete: About a year ago I
asked for various documents referring to the war in Cuba, which have not
been laid before us, nor have I insisted upon their presentation because
the war was then obstinate, and because I was told that their
presentation might lead to some difficulties.
The war, it is said, is over, and accordingly there is no objection to
the furnishing of those documents; for I think that we may now be made
acquainted with the capitulation, convention, or whatever it may have
been, and of the results obtained, and also a report of the chiefs and
armed men who have submitted.
Time enough having now passed, peace being a fact, as it is said, and
there being therefore no objection to the discussion of the business, I
ask the government to lay
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these documents before the chamber, for I think it an undignified
position for Congress not to know by this time what to expect in this
matter, for the understanding of which, should the government persist in
its silence, I shall make a motion in order to bring on a debate.
President of Council (Canovas del Castillo): The government has brought to this
chamber and made known to the country the dispatches on the state of the
war which have been sent by the governor-general of that province, and
by the general in chief of the army of operations. Congress then knows
officially, and the country knows all it can know up to the present time
on this point. The government has not yet made any announcement to
Congress of a general character, and accordingly it has not announced
that the war in Cuba was entirely over.
If General Salamanca will consult the reports he will see that the
government has made no such announcement nor anything like it.
The government began by bringing hither the dispatch about the
capitulation sent by the general-in-chief of the army of operations;
then it read the dispatches in which he announced the forces which, and
the leaders who, in fulfillment of the capitulation, had laid down their
arms and submitted to the government.
After this, and in consequence of a question of General Salamanca, I had
the honor to inform Congress that the suspicions manifested in his first
dispatch by the general-in-chief in giving notice that the capitulation
was being complied with, had been confirmed, since a colored leader at
the head of some forces, wholly or almost wholly composed also of
colored people, persisted in rebellion. So I stated in this place about
a fortnight ago, and this is the condition in which things still
continue.
The leader, Maceo, at the head of his faction, principally composed of
people of color, persists in rebellion.
So long as resistance still continues, even though, in the opinion of the
distinguished leaders who command the armies of the King in the Island
of Cuba, that resistance is insignificant, and will soon disappear; so
long as it exists, insignificant and ephemeral though it be, the
government cannot consider the war wholly at an end, and cannot consider
itself In a position to give an account here of its result, nor to take
initiative in a discussion of this nature. Consequently the government
will not present, following in this the parliamentary precedents not
only of Spain, but of all countries which are governed by the
representative system, will not present, I say, any other documents than
those which, in its opinion, cannot prejudice the cause of Spain in the
Island of Cuba.
Señor Salamanca y Negrete. After what the
president of the council of ministers has said, I cannot now enter upon
that discussion, nor do I propose to do it; but-1 shall call it up at
the proper time, taking all the responsibility which the honorable
gentleman wishes to lay upon me, and which I accept with pleasure.
* * * * * * *
Señor Canovas del Castillo. As respects the
first and principal part of this incidental debate, I must begin by
saying to Señor Salamanca that I do nothing new and nothing personal in
wishing that gentleman to take upon himself the responsibility of a
debate which the government deems inopportune. * * * For the rest, the
government, in fact, knows concerning the internal Condition of the
island of Cuba, concerning the preliminaries of capitulation, and
concerning other points, more than it has hitherto had occasion to lay
before the members of this chamber. But this is not what I said before;
I did not say that the government had not more information on this than
it had communicated to Congress, for, if that were the case, I should
not have had occasion to suggest what I have suggested in respect of
this discussion. I said only that, with regard to the external actual
state of the war, Congress knows as much as the government, because, in
this particular, there is no room for any kind of secrecy. Concerning
what preceded the capitulation, concerning the capitulation itself,
concerning what the government expects after the capitulation,
concerning what it believes will result from the capitulation,
concerning the possible length of the war, concerning the reasons the
government has for hoping what it may hope and for fearing what it may
fear, the government has its own knowledge and thinks it inopportune, at
present, to enter into discussion. But concerning the fact of the forces
which have submitted, concerning what remains to be done in the way of
pacification, the government has no kind of secret. It is a question of
fact, and concerning this fact, public, tangible, known to everybody,
even the very inhabitants of Cuba, the government has had and will have
no objection to telling this chamber what it knows, and has told what it
knows; that is, that a vast majority of those in insurrection having
laid down their arms, that what filled the place of a government, what
had a distinct organization, what had a certain character of power
opposed to power, having disappeared, there remains only a faction
composed of men of color, under the orders of a colored leader, which,
as the general-in-chief said in his first dispatch and I repeated a
fortnight ago, continues in arms and maintains the insurrection, though
reduced to its natural limits.
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This is a question which loses nothing—absolutely nothing—by being
deferred, because the capitulation once offered by the general-in-chief
of the Spanish army to the rebels, the conduct of the general-in-chief
once accepted and approved by the government, there remains and can
remain only a question of responsibility.
* * * * * * *
