THE CUBA REVI E W. 



Some of the Spanish newspapers re- 

 cently pointed out that Spain's claim 

 was entirely just, but they were in- 

 clined to doubt the success of the plan. 



There have been no new develop- 

 ments regarding the matter up to July 6. 



on a recommendation for mercy from 

 the Supreme Court, to which an appeal 

 from the verdict of the military court 

 had l)een taken by the condemned men. 



Spain's 

 Trade 

 with 

 Cuba. 



In 1907, the last year for 

 which the statistics are at 

 hand, Spain sold to Cuba 

 goods amounting in value 

 to- $12,660,000, and bought 

 from Cuba to the value of 

 $740,000 only. The balance of trade, in 

 fact, is entirely in Spain's favor. Of 

 thirty-five million kilograms of tobacco 

 that Spain imported in 1907, only five 

 hundred thousand kilograms came from 

 Cuba. 



The prospects for the negotiation of 

 a Cuban-Spanish commercial treaty are 

 considered very fair at Madrid. The 

 feeling in Spain toward Cuba is of the 

 most friendly nature, despite the debt 

 difficulties, and the treaty will turn on 

 the questions relating to tobacco and 

 sugar. The tobacco combination is not 

 likely to oppose the treaty, but the atti- 

 tude of the sugar manufacturers is 

 doubtful. 



Since Spain's production of sugar is 

 more than enough to supply the demand 

 of the home market there is no probabil- 

 ity of concessions to Cuban sugar. It is 

 more likely that concessions will be made 

 on raw tobacco, especially the kind 

 known in Cuba as "partido," or the 

 cheapest, which is grown in the eastern 

 part of the island. 



In the Provinces of Santa Clara and 

 Santiago the Valencia manufacturers of 

 fans expect on their part that the Span- 

 ish government will obtain advantages 

 for them in Cuba. 



Orestes Ferrara recently introduced a 

 bill in the House providing for 

 an increase of 30 per cent, on the im- 

 ports of all countries which export to 

 Cuba more than they import from Cuba. 

 It is understood that this bill is directed 

 against Spain in retaliation for that coun- 

 try's attempt to impose on Cuba a por- 

 tion of the colonial debt. 



On June 11, President 



Death Gomez commuted the sen- 



Sentence fence of death pronounced 



Commuted, in April by court martial 



upon Sergeants Francisco 



and Vicente Cortes to penal servitude for 



twenty years. The father and son were 



members of the rural guard and were 



convicted of participation in the uprising 



in March at Taguayabon, near Vueltas. 



The clemency of the President is based 



The New Cuban Consul General. 



Senor Mariano Rocafort, the newly 

 appointed Consul General of Cuba 

 to the United States, with residence 

 in New York, was born in Car- 

 denas, Cuba, and belongs to one of the 

 oldest families of Cuba. He was edu- 

 cated at the University of Havana and 

 speaks several languages. He was first 

 appointed Cuban Consul at Philadelphia 

 by President Tomas Estrada Palma, and 

 was later transferred to the more im- 

 portant post of Consul at London, Eng., 

 which post he retained until appointed 

 by President Gomez to the Consul Gen- 

 eralship at this port. 



The Consul General's new post is an 

 extremely arduous one, owing to the 

 amount of business between New York 

 and Cuba. The Consulate General here 

 is probably one of the busiest offices 

 of its kind in the United States. 



President Gomez has recommended 

 the establishment of long distance tele- 

 phones throughout Cuba. 



Guilio Mondello, Italian Minister to 

 Cuba, arrived at New York July 6 from 

 Italy. He said that when he went to 

 Messina he found that his mother, sis- 

 ter, and her two children had been killed 

 in the earthquake which desolated that 

 part of Sicily. He left at once for his 

 post. 



Walter E. Powers, an American ar- 

 tesian well contractor, who had been well 

 known here for the last ten years, died 

 suddenly at Isabella, Santa Clara Prov- 

 ince, of heart failure, on July 3. 



