Show STARVING CUBANS thousands dead and thousands are dying i official report places the starved at and tho starving at fourteen thousand in matanzas province without food santiago de cuba feb 18 correspondence pon dence of the press while the 17 S cruiser was at matanzas recently a board of officers ceis was appointed to inquire into the condition ot the people oi that province although the exact terms ot the report aro not known it may bo eaid that in substance 16 sets forth that there are people absolutely without pod and clothing within the city limits about of chese live in email hate of lalni branches these huts form three separate villages beyond the billt up portions of the city the other unfortunates live in the streets of the city and are ab eol without wit hoot homes or shelter eh elter these people are of the laboring class who have been driven into the cities from their country homes which have been destroyed in the war operations most of them are women and children and they are all emaciated eick and almost beyond relief unless they can have the benefit of regular treatment in the hospitals it Is they are dying in the alreeta for wani of food according to gathered from the best official sources the number of deaths iu the province of matanzas from starvation is and the number of Bt arving people at present in the p annees est nna edat oat of cipal tipal population of in december and the number 0 starving peo pie Is rapidly increasing in the city of matanzas alone there have been about deaths during the past year and the number is increasing dally the death rate at present averages 46 per day as shown by the reports from the cemetery the increase in the death rate is due to the fact that the distress is no longer confined to the laboring class most ot whom have already perished it is now extended to the people who before the war were in moderate comfortable circumstances cum stances those now begging in the streets were in large part well to do people or children of the well to do in addition the citizens 0 the city of matanzas themselves are begging for abe actual necessities of life having exhausted their resources in order to supply the needs of the laboring class who have been quartered apon the citizens of matanzas Matan zag have an or system 0 relief for the starving people but it is entirely inadequate and is daily becoming more glaringly so for the of those who are well to do are rapidly diminishing while the demand for food ie constantly increasing at one of the stations the board of officers found etar vint this being tho actual number of people for which the citizens had been able to provide relief for pans of rice and fish were arranged in rows ready for distribution among the people who were waiting in another part of the bouse but this relief does not begin to supply relief for abe people who are starving in the streets et for abo citizens are only able to issue food three times a day at each place and then to only about at a time consequently only about of abe destitute people receive food once a day it should be added that a large number of the ot matanzas Matan zae have fed the starving in the streets in front of their own homes but the citizens them selves are feeling the pinch and privation and 1 soon comes to them they will be compelled in self pro lection to cease he work of charity in which they are now engaged and which ie seemingly tle only for the Et arving thousands the only other public relief Matan at as ie that eiven to the fick children by he management of tho emergency pital which is under the direction of the volunteer fire department of matanzas there about eighty children are treated daily and are famished iti nourishment under the direction oi abo city phy eio ians these statements tate ments are the concha cacti arrive at by i board of U S naval officers when the U S naval officers landed they were constantly followed by clamoring crowds of men women and children who importuned them in tho most heartrending manner for a little food for the which they were eflowly dying |