On January 15 Mr. Barker writes:  “In this consular district a reign of terror and anarchy prevails, which the authorities, if so disposed, are utterly powerless to control or in any measure to subdue.  Aside from the suffering and desperation caused by the unparalleled destitution, I regard the situation as rapidly assuming a critical stage.  As stated heretofore, in no way have the authorities departed from the policy pursued by the late, but not lamented, General Weyler.  Spanish troops, as well as the guerrillas under the cruel chiefs Carreraz, Clavarrietta, and Lazo, continue to despoil the country and drench it with the blood of noncombatants.  Although the ‘bando’ of the captain-general provides that laborers may return to estates, it restricts their operations to those having a garrison.  Last week a number belonging to the ‘Sta.  Ana’ estate, located within a league of Sagua, and owned by George Thorndike of Newport, were driven off after returning, and refused a permit as a protection by the military commander, Mayor Lemo, one of the trusted officers under the Weyler regime.”

Mr. Barker says that from February 15 to March 12 he cared for twelve hundred persons, increasing the number on the relief list after that date to two thousand.

On March 24 Mr. Barker increased his estimate as to the amount of food necessary to keep life in the people of that province.  He said that one hundred and fifty tons a month were needful for that time, and that the distress was far greater than his former reports had shown.  In the letter of this date he recounts the particulars of a visit to Santa Clara, where, he says, he learned from his own agents and also from the governor of the province that the number of persons in actual want exceeded any estimate which he had previously sent to the government He had said only three days before that he thought twenty tons a month should be added to the eighty tons previously suggested.  In a communication of March 20 Mr. Barker says:  “The distress is simply heart-rending.  Whole families without clothing to hide nakedness are sleeping on the bare ground, without bedding of any kind, without food, save such as we have been able to reach with provisions sent by our own noble people; and the most distressing feature is that fully 50 per cent are ill, without medical attendance or medicine.”

Soldiers oppose aid.

Mr. Barker adds that if $5,000 could be sent to Consul General Lee, blankets, cots, and medicines could be purchased in Santa Clara, and thus save thousands who must die if compelled to await the sending of these supplies from the United States.

“I have,” he says, “found the civil governor willing to lend every aid in his power, but he admits that he can do nothing but assist with his civil officers in expediting relief sent by the United States.  The military obstruct in every way possible.”

Consul Hyatt’s report.