Show THE COMPETITOR CASE SPANIARDS WILL POSTPONE THE EXECUTIONS One of the Papers Indulges in a Lit tle War Talk The Situation us Seen Through English Eyes WASHINGTON May 11In the Competitors case i can be autlrori tively stated that at the request of the United States the Spanish government govern-ment will postpone the execution of the death sentences upon the American Ameri-can citizens until the views of the United States respecting the application to their cases qt the treaty of 1795 and the protocol o 1S77 can be considered con-sidered The announcement of the postponement of the execution means a delay of some weeks The matter will be taken up by the diplomatic representatives rep-resentatives of the United States and Spain and will be made the subject of an exchange of correspondence on the Interpretation to be given the treaty provisions Meanwhile the effect will be to allay the popular excitement both here and in Spain The acton k > f the state department in insisting upon a retrial at least of the American prisoners is evidently in answer to the contention of the court martial that the Gushing martal protocol proto-col of 1877 did not apply to the present case The court held that It applied only to American citizens resident in Spain or the Spanish dominions and as the captives from the Competitor were not in any sense residents of Cuba decided that they could not claim any of the privileges accorded by the protocol InJhe 1 opinion of the state department this was an extremely NARROW AND ILLIBERAL constructipn to place upon the protocol but while not accepting this construction construc-tion the state department guarded against an adverse decision on the protocol pro-tocol by recurring to the ancient treaty cit 1795 on the ground that if the prisoners pris-oners case was not covered by the protocol they certainly could invoke I the measure of proteotion afforded by the earlier treaty While this treaty is I not by any means generous in the mat ter of privileges held out to American prisoners it still contains some guarantee guar-antee of great value to them in just such cases as that which ha now arisen The section of the treaty ap plying to the case in the judgment of the state department is article viil which reads a follows And I is agreed that the subjects and citizens of each of the contracting parties their vessels or effects shall not be liable to any embargo or detention deten-tion on the part of the other for any military expedition or public or private purpose whatever and in ALL CASES OF SEIZURE detention or arrest for debts contracted con-tracted or offenses committed by any citizen of the one party within the jurisdiction ju-risdiction of the other the same shall be made and prosecuted by order and authority of law only and according to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases The citizens and subject of both parties shall be allowed al-lowed to employ such advocates solicitors solici-tors and notaries agents and factors as they may judge proper in all their affairs and in all their trials at law in which they may be concerned before the tribunals of the other party and such agents shall have free access to be present at the proceedings of such cases and the taking of all examinations examin-ations and evidence which may be exhibited in the said trials THE CONTENTION of the state department is that irrespective irre-spective of the Cushing protocol of 1877 this treaty gives the American prisoners prison-ers certain privileges that were withheld with-held from them by the Spanish court martial Notably they were obliged to rest their defense in the hands of a Spanish officer detailed for the purpose pur-pose and one I all probability not particularly anxious to clear his clients ents and were prevented from selecting select-ing their own counsel as guaranteed by the treaty Also i Is said that the prisoners were not accorded an opportunity op-portunity to procure testimony in their own behalf This is one of the privileges priv-ileges inseparable from a lawful and regular conduct of the prosecution Altogether the indications are that the state department is preparing to make a strong legal defense against the execution of the death penalty In I the case of the American prisoners |