Minister Collier to the Secretary of State.
Madrid, June 5, 1906.
Sir: I confirm my cable sent you on May 31, at about 5 p.m., reading as follows:a
The telegraph office at the time this message was dispatched was crowded by hundreds of people sending messages to assure their friends of their own safety and by newspaper correspondents sending dispatches to their papers, so that it was possible that the message was delayed in transmission, notwithstanding I called on the director of the telegraph office and asked him to make the message preferential, which he promised to do.
I had previously gone to the palace to inquire about the condition of their Majesties and had inscribed my name in the book placed for that purpose in the royal apartments and left a note with the minister of state, he being absent from his office; and I also called upon the subsecretary of state, Señor Ojeda, and also upon the president of the council of ministers.
I left on the afternoon of the 1st of June a note with the minister of state as follows:
Excellency: I am directed by the President to express through your excellency to their Majesties the unspeakable horror with which he has learned of the dastardly attempt upon the lives of their Majesties and of his great happiness that they have escaped uninjured. That God may guard their Majesties and grant them many years is the President’s fervent prayer.
Permit me to express to your excellency, whom I ask to be the bearer of the President’s message, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Wm. Miller Collier.
His Excellency the Minister of State.
The attempt upon the lives of their Majesties was made as they were returning from the Church of San Jeronimo after their marriage. They had traversed almost the entire extent of the long route from the church to the palace, having passed through streets filled with tens of thousands of people who had given them a most enthusiastic ovation, the beauty and graciousness of the new Queen and the gallantry of [Page 1349] the young King calling out everywhere proofs of affection and loyalty. Near the end of the Calle Mayor the bomb was thrown from a balcony on the fourth floor of a house. The results show that it probably exploded in the air and undoubtedly was composed of chemicals. The King and Queen escaped without injury, not even a scratch, although it is said the bridal gown was splashed with blood. The front of the carriage in which their Majesties were driving was wrecked; one of the horses nearest to the carriage was killed; several of the “caballerizos” of the King riding near the carriage were wounded; some of the escort were killed; a number of officers, soldiers, and policemen who were lining the street were killed, also six or eight residents of the lower floor of the house from which the bomb was thrown, some of whom were persons of high social position, among them being the Marquesa de Tolosa, sister of the Duke of Ahumada. Up to the date at which I am writing 20 persons have died as a result of the explosion of the bomb and the official list of injured number 108.
Their Majesties, after the clearing away of the smoke caused by the explosion, got out of their carriage and entered the empty “coach of respect” which it is customary to have in Spanish pageants such as the brilliant wedding cortege, and proceeded amid a crowd almost frenzied with delight to the royal palace.
The ministers of the Crown, in council, determined not to suspend the festivities, wishing not to interrupt the popular will. As a mark of respect to the victims, the ball of the palace on the following Saturday was changed into a reception without music. It is also still possible that the battle of flowers fixed by the programme for Wednesday next will be suspended or that the King will absent himself, as special fear of danger at that time is felt, the bomb hurled on the 31st of May having been hidden in a bouquet of flowers. The King and Queen (both of whom showed great bravery at the time of the outrage) on the next morning, unaccompanied by escort, automobiled through the streets of Madrid and everywhere were greeted with “vivas” and every sign of love and affection. On Saturday, however, in going to the bull fight, the royal party went through streets different from those announced, and the justifiable nervousness of the Government caused them to recall on Sunday morning all the tickets which had been given out for the gala function at the Teatro Real that night, reissuing, however, new tickets in the place of them. This was done because it was feared that some tickets of the first issue might have fallen into the hands of anarchists.
In the confusion which momentarily ensued after the commission of the outrage of hurling the bomb on the day of the wedding, the anarchist escaped from the building and was lost in the crowd. Numerous arrests of suspicious characters and of professed anarchists were made in hope of discovering the perpetrator of the outrage or accomplices. Yesterday, in a small village about 20 kilometers from Madrid, a suspicious character was arrested by one of the police force, and as he failed to give a clear account of himself and as his appearance in many respects coincided with the description which had been published of the person who for a number of days had been the tenant of the rooms from which the bomb was thrown, and who beyond question was the miscreant who perpetrated the outrage, he was directed by the policeman to accompany him to a tribunal, there to establish his identity. He consented without hesitation to do so, but the two had [Page 1350] not proceeded far when the man under arrest suddenly drew a revolver, shooting the policeman through the head, causing instant death, and seeing that he was likely to be pursued by the people of a near-by village and that escape would be impossible, he again drew his revolver and shot himself through the heart, dying in about fifteen minutes. The body was afterwards brought to Madrid and was identified beyond doubt as that of the tenant and sole occupant of the rooms from which the bomb was thrown, to whom every circumstance points as the perpetrator of the outrage, and who, inquiry shows, had long professed anarchistic beliefs. The miscreant was one Morales, a resident of Catalonia, a native of a village near Barcelona, and recently a resident of that city, where he had belonged to anarchist societies which nourish so rampantly in that place. He was not of the poorer classes. Until about a year ago he had been engaged with his father in the manufacture of woolen goods, the family owning a small factory.
This attempt to assassinate the King and Queen, occurring on the exact anniversary of the attempt made upon his life in Paris last year, and following the numerous anarchistic outrages in Barcelona, has aroused in Spain a demand for the expulsion of all foreign anarchists and the arrest of all Spanish anarchists; also for the calling of an international conference to consider how united action can be taken by the nations of the world to combat this opposition to all forms of government. It has also resulted in some startling revelations as to the number of anarchists in Spain, reliable journals being authority for the statement that the police registers of Spain contain the names of 5,000 anarchists.
I have, etc.,
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