THE CUBA REVIEW. 



tect of Havana; Agriculture, Ortelo Foyo, an influential merchant. These secretary- 

 ships above belong to Vice-President Alfredo Zayas. 



"The secretaryships of Justice and Public Works, as given above, have not yet 

 been fully decided upon. 



"War, Loynaz del Castilo; President's Secretary and Legal Adviser, Dr. Jose 

 Lorenzo Castellanos." 



Gen. Gomez will face some difficult problems after taking office, and some of 

 these are: First, the amalgamation of the Liberals. His efforts in this direction 

 are made easier by Vice-President Zayas's recent outspoken recommendation for 

 fusion. Second, the distribution of offices. Besides the clamor of his own partisans, 

 seventy-five per cent, of the Conservative officials now in office are likely to bring 

 on trouble if discharged by him, and, third, scarcity of money in the treasury to 

 meet future obligations, although Governor Magoon declared that Cuba will have 

 no debts when the American intervention ends. 



In his message to Congress President Roosevelt thus sums up the Cuban situa- 

 tion and sounds a warning note: 



"In Cuba our occupancy will cease in about two months' time; the Cubans have 

 in orderly manner elected their own governmental authorities, and the island will 

 be ttirned over to them. Our occupation on this occasion has lasted a little over two 

 years, and Cuba has thriven and prospered under it. Our earnest hope and one de- 

 sire is that the people of the island shall now govern themselves with justice, so that 

 peace and order may be secure. We will gladly help them to this end; but I would sol- 

 emnly warn them to remember the great truth that the only way a people can 

 permanently avoid being governed from without is to show that they both can and 

 will govern themselves from within." 



The Cuban newspapers disapproved of the warning paragraph on Cuba in the 

 message. The Diario de la Marina said: 



"As if enough had not been said already regarding this matter. President Roose- 

 velt launches a fresh threat against the Cubans. His words are unjust. Cuba is a 

 free and sovereign nation, whose sovereignity should not be extinguished on the 

 pretext of its inability to govern itself." 



Cuba, conservative, said: "It is evident that the President of the United States 

 has told his successor that his obligations are limited to respecting the indepen- 

 dence of Cuba while she conducts herself in an exemplary fashion; but at the first 

 political convulsion Mr. Taft is explicitly authorized to blot out even the name of 

 the republic." 



La Discusion, also conservative, said that President Roosevelt's "great truth" 

 applies only to small nations which are at the mercy of the great ones, and instances 

 the fate of the Transvaal. 



All the talk of a Cuban loan is met in the official report of United States Secre- 

 tary of War Wright on Dec. 11, in which he says that: 



"To insure the ability of the new Cuban government to meet obligations in- 

 curred by the provisional government for the sanitation of the island, the provisional 

 government will probably, by decree, authorize the President of Cuba to issue bonds 

 to the total of $15,000,000, the estimated cost of the work. 



"The original contracts for these works had been let during the former occupa- 

 tion of Cuba by the United States and under the administration of President Palma. 

 The issue of bonds will be $5,000,000 each year for three years. There is much 

 opposition in Cuba to the proposed loan, and President Gomez authorized his 

 organ. El Triumfo, to say that "With an economic and orderly administration Cuba 

 will easily be able to meet future demands on the treasury." 



The Diario de la Marina on the same subject said "That although the cash on 

 hand is only $1,756,595 and the obligations to be met for the public works voted 

 by the Cuban Congress and decreed by the provisional government amounts to 

 $6,756,747, a majority of these works are still in their earliest stages and are not of 

 urgent necessity." 



Cuba's Official Census. 



The official record of the last Cuban census shows that the population of the 

 island increased in the last eight years from 1,572,797 to 2,048,980, an increase of 

 476,183. The population by provinces is as follows: Pinar del Rio Province, 240,372, 

 an increase of 70,018; Havana Province, 538,010, an increase of 110.496; Matanzas 

 Province, 239,812, an increase of 37,368; Santa Clara Province, 457,431, an increase 

 of 100,895; Camaguey Province, an increase of 30,035, and Oriente Province, 455,036, 

 an increase of 127,371. 



The only city of any importance that has retrograded in population is Cardenas, 

 which, in 1907, had 30 fewer inhabitants than in 1899. 



