THE CUBA REVIEW 



According to cables re- 

 The ceived in Havana May 27, 



Spanish Spain had instructed its 

 Claims. Minister to Cuba to collect 

 from the island republic the 

 bill of expenses incurred in trying to 

 retain that colony. Cuba revolted and 

 Spain fought to retain her richest pos- 

 session and lost, and now she expects 

 Cuba to pay the expenses of her disas- 

 trous war. The amount of Spain's claim 

 was for 300,000,000 pesetas ($60,000,000). 

 On June 20, Secretary of State Justo 

 Garcia Velez made an elaborate answer, 

 denying the claim, pointing out that the 

 matter was plainly disposed of at the 

 proper time, the Cuban constitution hav- 

 ing provided that Cuba should enter into 

 the family of nations without any debts, 

 which provisions were duly accepted by 

 the Spanish government on recognizing 

 the Republic of Cuba. 



On June 12 the attention of the United 

 States was officially called to the claims 

 of the Spanish government merely as an 

 act of courtesy, however, as actual rep- 

 resentation had been made at Havana, 

 ■where the negotiations would necessa- 

 rily conclude. 



The question which has been raised 

 by the claim of Spain upon Cuba to 

 pay a heavy loan procured by the for- 

 mer under guarantee of payment, out 

 of resources drawn from Cuba, was 

 brought up in the negotiation with 

 Spain which took place in Paris in 1898. 

 The commissioners representing the 

 United States at that meeting refused to 

 sustain Spain's proposed exaction. 



Mr. Whitelaw Reid, now American 

 Ambassador to Great Britain, was one of 

 the Peace Commissioners that negoti- 

 ated the Treaty of Paris. His views on 

 the Spanish claim at that time were as 

 follows: 



"Acceptance of Spain's claim would 

 lead to extraordinary results, as under 

 that doctrine any oppressor would have 

 the certain means of subduing the most 

 righteous revolt and condemning a col- 

 ony to perpetual servitude." 



The American commission at the same 

 time made this memorandum on the sub- 

 ject: 



"From no point of view can the debts 

 above described be considered local debts 

 of Cuba or as debts incurred for the ben- 

 efit of Cuba. In no sense are they obli- 

 gations properly chargeable to that isl- 

 and. They are debts created by the gov- 

 ernment of Spain for its own purposes 

 and through its own agents, in whose 

 creation Cuba had no voice." 



As pertinent to the case, the following 

 from Professor Woolsey's work on in- 

 ternational law is quoted: 



There is another extreme case where a change 

 of government may dissolve prior obHgations. 

 It is where a despotic government has con- 

 tracted debts against a nation attempting to 

 recover its liberties. The Government is de 

 facto in possession of authority, and thus its 

 acts are lawful ; nevertheless, obligations entered 

 into to subjugate the people must be regarded 

 in this extreme case as pertaining to the Govern- 

 ment alone and not as resting on the people. 



When this subject was under discus- 

 sion in the United States Senate, at the 

 close of the Spanish War, Senator John 

 C. Spooner, who was then, as now, re- 

 garded as an authority on such ques- 

 tions, characterized the Cuban debt as 

 a Spanish one secured by a pledge of 

 revenues which could only be collected 

 by the exercise of Spanish sovereignty. 

 Every man who took a bond must have 

 taken it with notice that he depended for 

 payment out of the hypothecated funds 

 upon the ability of Spain to continue her 

 sovereignty, and if Spain lost her sov- 

 ereignty over the island of Cuba, she 

 would, of course, lose her power to re- 

 alize or pay the revenues pledged. To 

 this interpretation of the case the Sen- 

 ate subscribed and it was under corre- 

 sponding instructions that the treaty 

 commissioners acted at Paris in 1898. 

 In Paris, ex-Governor Magoon when 

 asked by a New York Herald repre- 

 sentative for his opinion, after some hesi- 

 tation spoke as follows: 



"The Spanish claims were a subject discussed 

 by the ioint commission in Paris after the war. 

 I recollect that in the course of the discussion 

 the Spanish delegates called attention to the ex- 

 ample furnished by some South American repub- 

 lics, which assumed their shares of the national 

 debt when they were freed from Spanish sov- 

 ereignty. The objection made to this argu- 

 ment, however, was that the republics volun- 

 tarily assumed such charges as the price of their 

 independence." 



Comment of the United States press 

 on the Spanish claim was widespread, 

 and with very few exceptions the almost 

 unanimous opinion was that Cuba need 

 not pay one penny of the claim. The 

 Chicago Tribune took this view: 



"If the so-called 'colonial debt' of about $300,- 

 000,000 which Spain would like to unload on 

 Cuba had been contracted for improvements made 

 in the island — for harbor works, roads, etc. — ■ 

 Cuba would have been morally bound to assume 

 the obligation. But the money was not spent 

 thus. It went towards defraying the military 

 expenses incurred in suppressing Cuban revo- 

 lutions. The money was used against the 

 Cubans, not for therii, and Spain should pay 

 the bill." 



Senor Besada, Spain's Minister of Fi- 

 nance, is accredited with the conviction 

 that Cuba would not refuse considera- 

 tion to the claim. On the contrary, he 

 expected the claim would be settled 

 without insuperable difficulties, as he 

 considered 300.000,000 pesetas ($60,000,- 

 000) but a slight return for the enor- 

 mous sacrifices made by Spain for Cuba's 

 prosperity. 



