We sometimes talk as if modern war, with its elaborate
aids for the wounded, were growing as mild and humane as cricket-match. That is a delusion, as General Weyler is showing us in Cuba. When once the shooting has begun you can place no limits on war. In order to reduce the rebels, General Weyler has issued and will enforce an order putting a stop to all harvest and other field operations in the sugar and coffee plantations. His object is to prevent the rebels getting a portion of the results of the harvest in the shape of blackmail. If they are deprived of their money supplies they will, he holds, be the more easily conquered. It is a savage decree, and means that the island will be ruined even more utterly than before, but we do not see how it can be logically condemned, granted that the object of the war is a good one.. If all compromise is refused, as it is by Spain, the only way to stamp out the rebellion is to make the people feel that the continuance of the revolt means for them absolute ruin.
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