Mr. Hay to the Duke de Arcos.
Washington, July 25, 1899.
Dear Mr. Minister: I have received your letter of the 22d of July, in which you tell me that the communications between your agent and the Filipino chief are embarrassed, and may be rendered interminable on account of the indisposition of General Otis to permit cipher telegrams to be sent to Aguinaldo. You state that as General Otis knows what the telegrams are about the measure he has adopted seems to you an exaggerated protection.
The President, as you know, is most anxious that every possible facility be afforded your agent for the accomplishment of the purpose we all have so much at heart—the liberation of the Spanish prisoners in the Philippines. I have therefore requested the Secretary of War to give directions to General Otis to permit the Spanish agent in the Philippines to communicate in cipher or otherwise to the insurgent chief all dispatches, the contents of which may have been made known to General Otis.
I am, etc.,