der.

At the present moment there is a general election taking place in Spain,
and until this is settled nothing will be done in regard to Cuban
reforms.

As soon as the elections are over, the Colonial Minister will prepare
the bill which will give Home Rule to Cuba. The bill will then be sent
to the Cortes, where it must be discussed by both the Upper and Lower
Houses before it can become a law. It may take many months before the
members can agree on such an important measure as this will be.

When it has finally passed the Cortes, it must be sent to the Queen, who
will look it over at her leisure, and sign it if she thinks fit.

Even after her signature is affixed the Cortes has the power to lay the
measure aside and prevent its ever becoming a law.

It is therefore hinted in Cuba that the offers of reform may after all
mean nothing but an endeavor to gain time, and prevent the United States
from going to the assistance of Cuba.

The reforms offered are not at all acceptable to Cubans, because they
find that they will be expected to pay the whole of the debt caused by
the war, which now amounts to nearly six hundred million dollars.
Furthermore, the captain-general who will rule over the island as
governor will have the right to veto every act of the legislature. The
Cubans therefore feel that the Home Rule offered is not a genuine reform
which will bring them relief from the abuses from which they rebelled
against Spain, but a sort of game, invented to keep them good tempered,
which is as unlike real Home Rule as playing with a doll is unlike
nursing a real baby.

It is stated that the Cuban people in the field and in the cities do not
believe in the offered Home Rule, and are determined not to accept it.

A proclamation to that effect has come from Cuba. It is signed by
Calixto Garcia, Maximo Gomez, and Domingo Mendez Capote,--which, by the
way, looks as if the report was true that Garcia had been elected
commander-in-chief of the army, Gomez, minister of war, and Capote,
president of Cuba; else why should they sign the proclamation, which is
an official document?

General Gomez has also issued another statement in which he says that
the change in the Spanish Government will not affect the Cuban plans in
the least. The Cubans, he says, are fighting for liberty, and liberty
they will have. They scornfully refuse the Spanish offers of Home Rule,
believing them to be insincere and misleading.

Gomez furthe