No. 422.
Mr. Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, June 12, 1872. (Received June 26.)
Sir: Among the topics of political interest that now occupy the attention of the cabinet and the press of Madrid there is scarcely one more prominent than the financial, administrative, and military situation of Cuba. Even the organs of the reactionary party, usually inclined to discredit or to suppress whatever may be said to discourage the hopes or diminish the prestige of those who maintain the statu quo in Cuba, point out the unsatisfactory condition of affairs in the island, and invoke the speedy adoption of measures to arrest the downward tendency of Spanish interests in the colony.
It is reported upon good authority that Count Valmaseda has tendered his resignation as captain-general. This was not unexpected, since it is confessed that the last campaign, like those which have preceded it, has made no serious impression on the insurgents, who still keep the field in undiminished numbers, and with the advantage that their chiefs have more experience and their troops are more accustomed to active service.
In the present condition of affairs in the peninsula, it will be difficult to raise and dispatch the re-en forcements required every autumn to make up the heavy losses usually sustained by the royal army of Cuba in each successive campaign. And it is intimated by the organs of the present colonial régime that unless the government finds some means to liquidate the large and increasing floating debt in Cuba, exceeding fifty millions of dollars, and most of which is in notes of the Bank of Havana, it will be impossible to prosecute the war with much vigor without Spain herself pays a considerable part of the cost. The resources of this government for such an emergency may be inferred from the circumstance that it has recently negotiated with much difficulty a loan of a million and a half of dollars, at the rate of 21 per cent, per annum, to which commissions and exchange must be added, as it is a foreign transaction.
It is understood that the government desires to borrow a much larger sum, to meet its current expenditures, and for which negotiations have been for some time pending.
I am, &c.,