in the islands in a smaller number of posts selected and constructed with special reference to sanitary conditions. This work of construction is being pressed forward as rapidly as possible with the appropriations made by Congress at the last session.

Full returns have not been received covering the period of epidemic cholera in the Philippines, but telegraphic reports indicate that the Army has suffered but little.

MILITARY OPERATIONS.

The principal military events of the past year have been the end of the military occupation of Cuba and the end of the insurrection in the Philippines.

CUBA.

In conformity to the Cuban constitution and electoral law, translations of which were annexed to my report of last year, elections were held by the Cuban people on the 31st of December, 1901, and by the electoral college on the 24th of February, 1902, when a president, vice-president, senate and house of representatives were chosen. On the 24th of March, 1902, the following instructions were given to the military governor:

Brigadier-General LEONARD WOOD,

Military Governor of Cuba, Havana, Cuba.

SIR: You are authorized to provide for the inauguration, on the 20th of May next, of the government elected by the people of Cuba; and upon the establishment of said government to leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to its people, pursuant to the provisions of the act of Congress entitled “An act making appropriation for the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902,” approved March 2, 1901. Upon the transfer of government and control to the President and Congress so elected, you will advise them that such transfer is upon the express understanding and condition that the new government does thereupon, and by the acceptance thereof, pursuant to the provisions of the appendix to the constitution of Cuba adopted by the constitutional convention on the 12th of June, 1901, assume and undertake all and several the obligations assumed by the United States with respect to Cuba by the treaty between the United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, signed at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898. It is the purpose of the United States Government, forthwith upon the inauguration of the new government of Cuba, to terminate the occupancy of the island by the United States and to withdraw from that island the military forces now in occupancy thereof; but for the preservation and care of the coast defenses of the island, and to avoid leaving the island entirely defenseless against external attack, you may leave in the coast fortifications such small number of artillerymen as may be necessary, for such reasonable time, as may be required to enable the new government to organize and substitute therefor an adequate military force of its own; by which time it is anticipated that the naval stations referred to in the statute and in the

appendix to the constitution above cited, will have been agreed upon, and the said artillerymen may be transferred thereto.

You will convene the Congress elected by the people of Cuba in joint session at such reasonable time before the 20th of May as shall be necessary therefor, for the purpose of performing the duties of counting and rectifying the electoral vote for President and Vice-President under the fifty-eighth article of the Cuban constitution. At the same time you will publish and certify to the people of Cuba the instrument adopted as the constitution of Cuba by the constitutional convention on the 21st day of February, 1901, together with the appendix added thereto and forming a part thereof, adopted by the said convention on the 12th day of June, 1901. It is the understanding of the Government of the United States that the government of the island will pass to the new President and Congress of Cuba as a going concern, all the laws promulgated by the government of occupation continuing in force and effect, and all the judicial and subordinate executive and administrative officers continuing in the lawful discharge of their present functions until changed by the constitutional officers of the new government. At the same moment the responsibility of the United States for the collection and expenditure of revenues, and for the proper performance of duty by the officers and employees of the insular government will end, and the responsibility of the new government of Cuba therefor will commence.

In order to avoid any embarrassment to the new president which might arise from his assuming executive responsibility with subordinates whom he does not know, or in whom he has not confidence, and to avoid any occasion for sweeping changes in the civil-service personnel immediately after the inauguration of the new government, approval is given to the course which you have already proposed of consulting the president-elect, and substituting before the 20th of May, wherever he shall so desire, for the persons now holding official positions, such persons as he may designate. This method will make it necessary that the new president and yourself should appoint representatives to count and certify the cash and cash balances, and the securities for deposits, transferred to the new government. The consent of the owner of the securities for deposits to the transfer thereof you will of course obtain.

The vouchers and accounts in the office of the Auditor and elsewhere relating to the receipt and disbursement of moneys during the government of occupation must necessarily remain within the control and available for the use of this Department. Access to these papers will, however, undoubtedly be important to the officers of the new Government in the conduct of their business subsequent to the 20th of May. You will accordingly appoint an agent to take possession of these papers, and retain them at such place in the island of Cuba as may be agreed upon with the new Government until they can be removed to the United States without detriment to the current business of the new Government.

I desire that you communicate the contents of this letter to Mr. Palma, the President-elect, and ascertain whether the course above described accords with his views and wishes.

Very respectfully,

ELIHU ROOT,

Secretary of War.

These instructions, being communicated to the President-elect, Mr. Palma, received his approval, and they were completely executed on the 20th of May, 1902. The specific instructions which followed and the various public acts, which, taken together, accomplished the termination of military government and the inauguration of the new Republic, are shown in the series of papers annexed hereto as "Appendix A.”

The whole governmental situation in Cuba was quite unprecedented, with its curious device of a suspended sovereignty given up by Spain, but not in terms vested in anybody else, and if vested remaining dormant, while a practical working government of military occupation in time of peace, deriving its authority from the sovereignty of another country, claimed temporary allegiance, made and enforced laws, and developed a political organization of the Cuban people to take and exercise the suspended or dormant sovereignty. It was important that in inaugurating the new government there should be no break in the continuity of legal obligation, of rights of property and contract, of jurisdiction, or of administrative action. It would not do to wait for the new government to pass laws or to create offices and appoint administrative officers and vest them with powers, for the instant that the new government was created the intervening government ceased, and the period of waiting would be a period of anarchy.

It was necessary, therefore, to take such steps that the new government should be created as a going concern, every officer of which should be able to go on with his part of the business of governing under the new sovereignty without waiting for any new authority. That everything necessary to this end should be done, and that it should be done according to a consistent and maintainable legal theory, caused the Department a good deal of solicitude. It is gratifying to report that it was done, and that the government which, until noon of May 20th, was proceeding under the authority of the President of the United States, went on in the afternoon of that day and has ever since continued under the sovereignty which had been abandoned by Spain in April, 1899, without any more break or confusion than accompanies the inauguration of a new President in the United States. This could not have been done without the most perfect good understanding, mutual confidence, and sympathetic

cooperation on the part of our officers, who were about to retire, and the newly-elected officers of Cuba, who were about to take the reins of government. Our troops withdrew from Cuba in the afternoon of the 20th of May, amid universal expressions of gratitude, esteem, and affection. The public feeling was well illustrated by the following telegram from President Palma:

ELIHU ROOT,

Secretary of War, Washington:

HAVANA, May 21, 1902.

I am deeply moved by your heartfelt message of congratulation on the inauguration of the Republic of Cuba, to the birth of which the people and the Government of the United States have contributed with their blood and treasure. Rest assured that the Cuban people can never forget the debt of gratitude they owe to the great Republic, with which we will always cultivate the closest relations of friendship and for the prosperity of which we pray to the Almighty.

T. ESTRADA PALMA.

I venture to express the hope that this strong and well-deserved friendship of Cuba may be permanent and may never be alienated by our treatment of the smaller and weaker power, and that the people of the United States may never lose their deep interest in the welfare of the new Republic which they have called into being with so much labor and sacrifice. I know of no chapter in American history more satisfactory than that which will record the conduct of the military government of Cuba. The credit for it is due, first of all, to Brig. Gen. Leonard Wood, the commander of the department of Santiago until December, 1899, and thenceforth military governor of the island. Credit is due also to Brig. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, who had charge of the collection of customs revenues; Maj. E. St. John Greble and Maj. and Surg. Jefferson R. Kean, successively heads of the department of charities; Lieut. Matthew E. Hanna, superintendent of public schools; Lieut. E. C. Brooks and Mr. J. D. Terrill, successively auditors of Cuba; and to the Cuban gentlemen who, as heads of the various state departments, constituted the cabinet of the military governor: Messrs. Diego Tamayo, secretary of state and government; Leopoldo Cancio, secretary of finance; Jose Varela, secretary of justice; Jose R. Villalon, secretary of public works; Enrique Jose Varona, secretary of public instruction; and Perfecto Lacoste, secretary of agriculture. Credit is also due to Maj. Gen. John R. Brooke, the first military governor, and the members of his

administration; and to the department commanders, Gen. James H. Wilson and Gen. Fitzhugh Lee; to the lamented Gen. William Ludlow, whose arduous labors in the government and sanitation of Havana made his untimely death not the least of his country's sacrifices for Cuba; to Brig. Gen. Joseph P. Sanger, commander at Matanzas and later director of the census; and to Maj. Gen. (then Col.) Adna R. Chaffee, chief of staff, and Col. W. V. Richards and Col. H. L. Scott, adjutants-general of the department.

Especial credit is due also to the Medical Department of the Army, and particularly to Maj. Walter Reed and Maj. William C. Gorgas for their extraordinary service in ridding the island of yellow fever, described in my last report; and to Dr. Jefferson R. Kean and Dr. James Carroll for their share in that work.

The brilliant character of this scientific achievement, its inestimable value to mankind, the saving of thousands of lives, and the deliverance of the Atlantic seacoast from constant apprehension, demand special recognition from the Government of the United States.

Dr. Reed is the ranking major in the Medical Department, and within a few months will, by operation of law, become lieutenantcolonel. I ask that the President be authorized to appoint him assistant surgeon-general with the rank of colonel, and to appoint Major Gorgas deputy surgeon-general with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and that the respective numbers in those grades in the Medical Department be increased accordingly during the period for which they hold those offices.

The name of Dr. Jesse W. Lazear, contract surgeon, who voluntarily permitted himself to be inoculated with the yellow fever germ, in order to furnish a necessary experimental test in the course of the investigation, and who died of the disease, should be written in the list of the martyrs who have died in the cause of humanity. As a slight memorial of his heroism a battery in the coast defense fortification at Fort Howard, Baltimore, Md., has been named Battery Lazear."

Under the clause of the foregoing instructions relating to the care of the coast defenses in Cuba, four companies of Coast Artillery have been left in the fortifications of Habana, two companies at Cienfuegos, and two companies at Santiago, pending the location of naval stations, to which they may be transferred, and the instruction of Cuban artil