Speech #550007776

The undersigned. Secretary of State. having received a resolution passed in the Senate of the United States on December 21. 1896. in the following wordsThat the Secretary of State be. and he Is hereby. directed to send to the Senate a report of all naturalized citizens of the United States of whose arrest and imprisonment. trial. or conviction. or sentence. either to imprisonment at the penal colony of Ceutro or elsewhere. he has any information. and that he shall inform the Senate in such report of the persons now held in confinement at Centro and of the charges. briefly stated. on which they were condemned and the nature of the evidence. so far as the same appears on the files of the State Departmenthas the honor to lay before the President a list of persons claiming to be citizens of the United States who have been arrested in Cuba since February 24. 1895. to the present date. to the end that. if in the Presidents judgment not incompatible with the public interest. the same be transmitted to the Senate in response to the foregoing resolution. Since the breaking out of the insurrection in Cuba. on February 24. 1895. to the present time. 74 persons. citizens of the United States. or claiming to be such. have been arrested by the Spanish authorities of the island. Passports. certificates of naturalization. registration in the consulates of this Government on the Island of Cuba. and service on ships sailing under the flag of the United States having been alike accepted by our consular officers and the Spanish authorities as prima facie evidence of citizenship establishing the rights of the claimants to the treatment secured to our citizens under our treaties and protocols with Spain. it has been deemed advisable to include in the subjoined list all persons of the classes referred to who have been arrested. Of the 74 persons arrested. 7 have been tried. namely: Nos. 1. 86. 70. 71. 72. 73. and 74. In the cases of 2 of these (Nos. 1 and 36) appeals have been taken. and in the cases of the other 5. the Competitor prisoners. a new trial has been ordered.