The petition asks for intervention with the Spanish Government for
clemency, claiming that as Cubans the have become, under the terms of
the peace protocol, subjects of the United States.
Her Majesty’s consul mentions that such claims to American citizenship by
Cubans are constantly received.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
Various Cuban prisoners
to the British consul at
Barcelona.
Castle of San Fernando,
Figueiras, August 20,
1898.
Sir: The undersigned, demanding the right
of people living in civilized countries, beg to submit to you the
following petition:
The peace [protocol] having been signed and hostilities suspended
between the armies of Spain and the United States, the former having
handed over to the latter her right of sovereignty over the island
of Cuba, the inhabitants of the same become subjects (provisionally)
of the latter Government (the United States of America); and as in
Spain the interests and the persons of American subjects are under
the protection of the British flag, it follows that Cubans during
the occupation by the United States must be considered as such; we
therefore appeal to the British flag to obtain protection, in the
certainty of obtaining it from that powerful and generous
nation.
The undersigned, in representation of the survivors of the 200 Cubans
who were shut up in this castle on November 29, 1896, and of other
parties of exiles, declare as follows:
That from the above-mentioned date they have been confined in an
underground gallery, where the atmosphere is unhealthy and
pestilential, owing to the damp and emanations from a people crowded
into an unhealthy locality, filled with fleas and lice, which
torment our bodies and produce germs which lead to diseases which
have caused the death of a third of our original number. For one
hour in the morning and one hour and a half in the afternoon we are
allowed to take exercise in the moat of the fortress guarded by
armed soldiers. On returning from the pure air to our quarters we
find the atmosphere simply suffocating.
The food is insufficient to sustain life, although it has been
somewhat improved the last few days. Formerly we suffered from
actual hunger.
For all purposes we are provided with the sum of 50 centimos. We have
not even a piece of soap, and suffer at the same time an isolation
such that we are not allowed to speak with anybody, not even with
our guards, and even the notes we send to our companions in hospital
are under inspection.
But, as all reasons for this rigorous treatment, quite out of
proportion to our position as exiles have now ceased to exist, and
it not being likely that any indiscretion of ours can harm the
Government, it is evident that the isolation and rigorous treatment
we suffer should cease, as we do not intend to make any attempt to
escape nor commit any illegal act whatever, and clemency is invoked
by humanity.
In virtue of which we beg you, with all possible dispatch, to
transmit this petition to the British ambassador in Spain, that he
may obtain from the Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent an
act of pity to alleviate the misfortunes of the under
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signed, who commence and
conclude with an invocation of the right of mankind, for which favor
they will be hereafter most grateful to the distinguished diplomat
to whom this petition is addressed and to the gracious sovereign who
can not deny the favor we in justice ask.
Pedro Martinez
Faliente
et al.(Fifteen additional
signatures.)