Show I THE DELAtED MESSAGE Explanation Given By the French Cable Manager I Fort de France Island of Martinique May 16 Copyright 1898 by the Associated Asso-ciated PressThe manager here of the I French Cable company emphatically denies the statement that a dispatch I filed by Captain Cotton of the United States auxiliary cruiser Harvard was t delayed 24 hours at St Pierre this Island I The manager explains the matter a follows Captain Cotton presented I himself at the office of the company at St Pierre and asked by what cable line cable messages were transmitted to Washington When he was Informed that such messages went by way of Fort de France and Haytl he refused to give us his dispatch because a Spanish Span-ish torpedo boat was at that time at Fort de France Not taking into account ac-count professional secrecy he told the American consul In the presence of M Lalung under these circumstances I he preferred tp give his dispatches to the English company in spite of the delay de-lay of 2 hours which they have to submit I sub-mit to on account of accumulation of business on the lines of that company |