682 Peace protocol. Negotiations at Paris. [i898 Regent "accepts the proffered terms, subject to the approval of the Cortes of the kingdom, as required by their constitutional duties," some of the expressions used in relation to the Philippines were not free from ambiguity. This circumstance induced the President to pronounce the note unsatisfactory, and to propose, as the most direct and certain way of avoiding misunderstanding, to embody in a protocol the precise terms on which negotiations should be undertaken. This course was adopted ; and on August 12 the protocol was signed at Washington by Judge Day, Secretary of State, duly empowered by the President for the purpose, and by the French ambassador, Cambon, acting under a special full power from the Queen Regent of Spain. This protocol embodied, without qualification or reserve, the precise terms offered by the President to Spain on July SO. It consisted of six articles. By the first, Spain agreed to "relinquish all claims of sovereignty over and title to Cuba."" By the second, she engaged to cede Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies, and an island in the Ladrones, to be selected by the United States. The third was in these words : " The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbour of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines." The fourth provided for the appointment of two commissions, to meet respectively at Havana, in Cuba, and San Juan, in Porto Rico, for the purpose of carrying out the immediate evacuation by Spain of Cuba, Porto Rico, and other Spanish islands in the West Indies. By the fifth, the United States and Spain agreed each to appoint not more than five commissioners, who should meet in Paris not later than October 1, 1898, to treat of peace. By the sixth and last article, provision was made for the immediate suspension of hostilities. In the negotiations at Paris, the two great subjects of controversy were the so-called Cuban debt and the disposition of the Philippines. For the payment of the Cuban debt the revenues of the island were pledged ; but its payment was also expressly guaranteed by the Spanish nation. The debt itself was contracted by the Spanish government and its authorities in Cuba for the most part after 1868. In that year the so-called debt of Cuba amounted to only $18,000,000. In 1880, two years after the close of the ten years 1 war, it amounted to upwards of $170,000,000. Between February, 1895, when the last insurrection broke out, and January 1, 1898, new bonds were issued to the amount of 858,550,000 pesetas, or $171,000,000. There were also other debts, uncertain in amount, which were understood to be considered in Spain as properly chargeable to Cuba. To Spain the question of the disposition of these financial burdens was evidently more important, from the pecuniary point of view, than that of the relinquishment of territory, the attempt to retain which had given rise to them. The Spanish commissioners therefore bent all their
