24 



THE CUBA REVI E W 



ISLE OF PINES SCENERY— LAMA PARK, BIBIJAJUA. 



Isle of Pines Status Not Settled. 



By and by the war with Spain came 

 along. The Isle of Pines became Ameri- 

 can territory — so Mr. McKinley and John 

 Hay thought. Then Mr. Roosevelt and 

 Elihu Root changed the executive Am- 

 erican mind, and said the Isle of Pines 

 was Cuban territory. The Piatt amend- 

 ment had declared that the question of 

 the title was to be kept open for future ad- 

 justment. That adjustment was attempt- 

 ed by the negotiaion of a treaty giving 

 Cuba a quit-claim deed to the island in 

 consideration of sundry sites for naval 

 stations, and such on the island of Cuba. 

 For several years the Senate of the 

 United States has refused to confirm 

 that treaty, and it likewise has neglected 

 to reject it. There was an American 

 revolution on the Isle of Pines, and great 

 excitement, but the status was not 

 changed nor the issue settled. — Frederic 

 J. Haskin. 



T. J. Keenan, of Pittsburg, president 

 of the American Association of the Isle 

 of Pines, who has just returned from 

 Cuba, said to the Philadelphia Press on 

 Feb. 5, that he had an interview with 

 President Gomez, who assured him that 

 the administration would do all in its 

 power to protect property throughout the 

 island and would take all measures to 



encourage foreign capital. 



He also said that Gomez was a more 

 able man than Palma. Mr. Keenan has 

 extensive interests in the Isle of Pines, 

 and was one of the prime movers in or- 

 ganizing the opposition to the treaty 

 which would turn over the island to the 

 Cuban government. He says he is still 

 of the opinion that the United States 

 should own the Isle of Pines, although 

 he admits that the Cubans have given it 

 good government. They have built roads 

 costing $30,000, he said, and erected a 

 court of justice. The Isle of Pines, 

 Keenan said, was the only purely Anglo- 

 Saxon colony in the tropics. At the 

 present time it has between five thousand 

 and six thousand Americans owning 



property. 



The Fruit Exhibits. 



The Isle of Pines display of fruits at 

 the exhibition of the Cuban Horticultural 

 Society in Havana, Jan. 20, attracted 

 great attention, says La Lucha. 



Exhibitors sent beautiful specimens 

 of oranges, grape-fruit, tangerines, lem- 

 ons, all kinds of vegetaoles and canned 

 fruits, preserves and jellies. 



A mammoth king-orange attracted 

 much attention, and some very large 

 smooth Cayenne pineapples were like- 

 wise admired. 



