While these negotiations were in progress the increasing destitution of the unfortunate reconcentrados and the alarming mortality among them claimed earnest attention.  The success which had attended the limited measure of relief extended to the suffering American citizens among them by the judicious expenditure through the consular agencies of the money appropriated expressly for their succor by the joint resolution approved May 24, 1897,[5] prompted the humane extension of a similar scheme of aid to the great body of sufferers.  A suggestion to this end was acquiesced in by the Spanish authorities.

On the 24th of December last I caused to be issued an appeal to the American people inviting contributions in money or in kind for the succor of the starving sufferers in Cuba, following this on the 8th of January by a similar public announcement of the formation of a central Cuban relief committee, with headquarters in New York City, composed of three members representing the American National Red Cross and the religious and business elements of the community.

The efforts of that committee have been untiring and have accomplished much.  Arrangements for free transportation to Cuba have greatly aided the charitable work.  The president of the American Red Cross and representatives of other contributory organizations have generously visited Cuba and cooperated with the consul-general and the local authorities to make effective distribution of the relief collected through the efforts of the central committee.  Nearly $200,000 in money and supplies has already reached the sufferers, and more is forthcoming.  The supplies are admitted duty free, and transportation to the interior has been arranged, so that the relief, at first necessarily confined to Havana and the larger cities, is now extended through most, if not all, of the towns where suffering exists.

Thousands of lives have already been saved.  The necessity for a change in the condition of the reconcentrados is recognized by the Spanish Government.  Within a few days past the orders of General Weyler have been revoked.  The reconcentrados, it is said, are to be permitted to return to their homes and aided to resume the self-supporting pursuits of peace.  Public works have been ordered to give them employment and a sum of $600,000 has been appropriated for their relief.

The war in Cuba is of such a nature that, short of subjugation or extermination, a final military victory for either side seems impracticable.  The alternative lies in the physical exhaustion of the one or the other party, or perhaps of both—­a condition which in effect ended the ten years’ war by the truce of Zanjon.  The prospect of such a protraction and conclusion of the present strife is a contingency hardly to be contemplated with equanimity by the civilized world, and least of all by the United States, affected and injured as we are, deeply and intimately, by its very existence.