Mr. Day to Mr.
Dupuy de Lôme.
Department of State,
Washington, December 27,
1897.
No. 331.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your note of the 24th instant, handed to me personally on
that day, conveying the gratifying information that, in order to
facilitate the sending of relief for the reconcentrados and the
destitute and suffering in the Island of Cuba by charitably disposed
persons in the United States, money and supplies can now be sent
directly to the consul-general of the United States in Havana, being
admitted with remission of customs duties and to be by him delivered to
boards organized for the relief of the reconcentrados or to the
bishop.
This act of kindly deference to the benevolent sentiment of the American
people which has been so deeply moved by the spectacle of distress and
misery in the neighboring community has been highly appreciated by the
President, who hastened to give it the widest publicity through the
issuance, on the same day that he received the information, of a public
notification, signed by the Secretary of State, inviting contributions
for the succor of the sufferers in Cuba. I inclose a copy thereof.
Accept, etc.,
[Page 514]
[Inclosure in No. 331.]
Department of State,
Washington, December 24,
1897.
By direction of the President, the public is informed that, in
deference to the earnest desire of the Government to contribute by
effective action toward the relief of the suffering people in the
Island of Cuba, arrangements have been perfected by which charitable
contributions, in money or in kind, can be sent to the island by the
benevolently disposed people of the United States.
Money, provisions, clothing, medicines, and the like articles of
prime necessity can be forwarded to Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, the
consul-general of the United States at Havana, and all articles now
dutiable by law so consigned will be admitted into Cuba free of
duty. The consul-general has been instructed to receive the same and
to cooperate with the local authorities and the charitable boards
for the distribution of such relief among the destitute and needy
people of Cuba.
The President is confident that the people of the United States, who
have on many occasions in the past responded most generously to the
cry for bread from peoples stricken by famine or sore calamity, and
who have beheld no less generous action on the part of foreign
communities when their own countrymen have suffered from fire and
flood, will heed the appeal for aid that comes from the destitute at
their own threshold and, especially at this season of good will and
rejoicing, give of their abundance to this humane end.
