12 THECUBAREVIEW 



No decision has yet been arrived at as to the price to be allowed by the International 

 Sugar Committee for Cuban sugars during the next season. 



Lumber. — The Cuban Government has prohibited the exportation of all shipments of 

 lumber and logs, excepting to the United States. 



Japanese Steamship Line. — Reference has previously been made to Japanese steamers 

 arriving with cargoes from the Orient. The Japanese line Nippon Yusen Kaisha is now oper- 

 ating a service with sailings about a month apart, touching only at Japanese ports for Havana 

 and New York, returning from New York homeward without touching here. Two sailings 

 of this line have so far been made. 



Customs Receipts. — The Custom House receipts at Havana have continued to increase. 

 The total for July, 1918, are $2,501,456.52, being $99,182.43 higher than in the same month 

 last year. 



Havana. — It is stated that the City of Havana will spend a large sum of money in beauti- 

 fying the parks and "paseos." Work in this connection has already been begun by the substitu- 

 tion of marble benches on the Prado for the wooden settees formerly used. Also the street 

 between Central Park and the head of O'Reilly and Obispo Streets has been embelhshed by the 

 addition of large bronze lamp posts, and ornamentally trimmed trees have been set out in the 

 grass parking. 



Building. — While building operations both for business and residential purposes are very 

 heavy, a letup in the former is predicted caused by restriction in connection with the expor- 

 tation of structural iron and steel from the United States. The erection of smaller buildings, 

 however, will not be so much affected in this regard, as iron does not enter so largely into their 

 construction. 



Fruits and Vegetables.— On August 9th the local office of the United States War Trade 

 Board made public the following cablegram received from headquarters in connection with the 

 shipping of fruit and vegetables, as follows: 



"We have authorized the granting of permits for the importation of fruits and vegetables 

 from Cuba into the United States for the period included between the dates Aug. 1 and Dec. 

 31 of the current year, providing in all cases that all the requisites of the West Indian Trans- 

 portation Committee of the Navigation Board have been complied with. This resolution is 

 based on the fact that the movement of the Cuban sugar crop will soon cease, thus allowing a 

 greater amount of cargo space on the vessels available for other shippers." 



National Automobile & Truck Mfg. Corp. of Cuba.— Announcement is made of the pro- 

 posed formation of a company to be capitalized at $5,000,000 for the manufacture of auto- 

 mobiles and trucks to be called the "Compania Nacional para la Faricacion de Automoviles 

 y Camiones," their English title being given as "National Automobile & Truck Manufactur- 

 ing Corporation of Cuba," but as far as we have been able to ascertain, no further details 

 have been made public. 



Tobacco. — Shipments of tobacco and its products continue heavy. Statistics covering 

 exportations during the first half of August this year as compared with the same period last 

 year are as follows : 



Exports during first half August, 1918 Quantity 



Tobacco in bales 8,538 



Cigars 3,434,411 



Cigarettes (packages) 110,020 



Smoking tobacco (kilograms) 9,246 



