THE LOSS OF THE MAINE

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 6

THE LOSS OF THE MAINE

' COLONEL BRADY'S 'THEORY.,: , A telegram from Havana to the New York press, a few weeks ago.i Stated that the officials- who< are making the arrangements in Havana Harbour for the raising of the iTJnited States- battleship Maine, which was destroyed - by. an ex-: plosion-in 189S, have found'a quantity of insulated copper wire under the hull of tho wreck. The finding of this copper, wire, which: is stated to be the kind used for electrical currents of high tension, is accepted here as: a confirmation of tho theory of Colonel Jasper.Brady, who was one of tho committee of four which investigated the.explosion immediately after the war with Spain, which, it will ho remembered, was precipitated by. the loss of the battleship and the death of 272 of her crew. '.

Colonel Brady declares that a Spanish electrician, named Jose Zavaldo, working in Morro Castle, was responsible for the explosion, and that he was doubtless a fanatic. The finding of the committee at tlie time was to the effect that the. Maine was blown up from tho outside, but.only now has the statement by Colonel Brady-been-made public: The harbour of Havana was sown with mines, and Colonel Brady says that Zavaldo was in charge' of the wires which operated the mines. He believes that Zavaldo, hating the Americans, acted upon an impulse, and turned the switch which caused the explosion. The theory is generally accepted as correct, as Zavaldo was afterwards executed on the command of General Blanco, the Spanish Governor. Acceptance of this belief exonerates Spain of having,officially had any hand in the matter.