CUBA AND THE AMERICANS.
[To TEE EDITOR OF TEE "SPECTATOR."] SIE,—The enclosed extract is from a letter recently received. The writer is travelling in Cuba on business, his first visit to the island. It may be of interest to your readers when it is known that previous to leaving England his sympathies were decidedly with the Spaniards, but—as shown in the letter—now that he sees things as they really are his opinions have undergone a change.-1 am, Sir, &c., .Diss, Norfolk, December 21st, FLORENCE ABBOTT.
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER DATED HAVANA, NOVEMBER 17TH, 1898.
" The journey from here (Havana) to the town of Matanzas was through vary pretty, hilly country, most of the land quite wild and uncultivated. We passed several large sugar mills, but they were in ruins, having been burnt by the Spanish soldiers because the owners were Cubans or sympathisers with their cause. Many of the villages had also been destroyed in the same way, and their inhabitants killed or driven into the towns of Havana or Matanzas by order of General Weyler during the war. A few had returned and rebuilt their houses, but not as they were before the war, being now only huts of wood frame- work, lined with palm leaves, and roofed with the same material. As the train stopped at the small stations, or rather rough plat- forms (the soldiers having burnt all the stations), some dozens of the poor people came to the carriages to beg for food or money, and a terrible sight it was to see these poor creatures in rags and thin as shadows, many so weak that they could with difficulty drag themselves to the carriages. One girl of fourteen or fifteen fell twice in walking a few yards. This is the work of the Spaniards. and the same thing has been repeated all over the island. The town of Havana is full of these homeless people lying or sitting about in the open squares and streets. I think the Americans did not come a day too soon, seeing that it is the only way the above-mentioned horrors could be put an end to."
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