I0 82 CUBA 



own suggestion) a stern Note of warning was sent in January 1912 from Washington by 

 the United States government. Order was temporarily restored after President Gomez 

 had capitulated to the demands of the Veterans' Association and executed or dismissed 

 a number of the objectionable office-holders, but the ferment again began when one of 

 the dismissed officials brought a suit before the Courts and obtained a judgment de- 

 claring the suspension of the Civil Service laws to be a breach of the constitution. The 

 situation was also embittered by the fact that the election of President Gomez as presi- 

 dent in 1909 (to hold office till Jan. 17, 1913) had been the result of a Liberal victory at 

 the polls in 1908, and that an arrangement had been effected by him with Senor Zayas 

 by which the latter would be the Liberal candidate in the autumn of 1912, an under- 

 taking which Gomez was no longer inclined to observe; so that the Liberals were divided 

 into two camps while the Conservatives were attacking the Liberal government. 



The political unrest and commotion started by the action of the Veterans' Associa- 

 tion communicated itself without delay to the army and to the negroes, and in the spring 

 of 1912 the turbulence became increasingly serious. In the east of the island a large 

 number of negroes broke out in open insurrection, and labour troubles were .creating 

 much mischief and danger to mills and plantations, particularly in the province of 

 Oriente. The lives of American citizens and others in Cuba, and foreign property con- 

 servatively valued at $220,0x30,000, were threatened by this crisis. Mr. Knox, the 

 American Secretary of State, visited Havana in April 1911, at the conclusion of his tour 

 through the Central American Republics, and at Washington during May it was felt 

 that forcible American intervention might again be necessary. For this purpose eight 

 battleships, with adequate auxiliary equipment, were concentrated at Key West, in order 

 that the right of the United States (under the " Platt amendment " of 1901; E. B. vii, 

 604) to intervene " for the protection of Cuban independence, and the maintenance of 

 a government adequate for the protection of life, property and individual liberty," 

 might if necessary be vindicated. These preparations occasioned great excitement 

 in the Cuban capital, but succeeded in overawing the insurgents; and towards the end 

 of July conditions improved, the Cuban government having the situation then well in 

 hand. By the close of the year only a few small bands of insurgents remained, while 

 General Ivonet, the negro leader, was eventually captured. 



The financial condition of the Republic became acute in the early days of September 

 1912. The United States presented a peremptory demand for a monthly instalment of 

 $400,000 (80,000) towards the cost of sewerage and paving in Havana, on behalf of the 

 American contractors. On September 25th the Cuban government paid up. 



The granting by presidential decree of a concession and a subsidy of $6,000 per kilo- 

 metre for a new railway between Caibarien and Nuevitas, and also between Camaguey 

 and Santa Cruz del Sur, to an American Company, proposing to expend $25,000,000 

 (5,000,000) upon constructing the 305 kilometres, occasioned great opposition upon the 

 part of the Cuban Central Railways which had held an exclusive concession. The 

 British Ambassador at Washington was appealed to, and on December 2, 1912, Mr. 

 Bryce lodged an emphatic protest against granting the concession called for by the Cu- 

 ban North Coast Railway, alleging that such concession was granted " under scandalous 

 circumstances, and was prejudicial to the legitimate vested interests of the Cuban 

 Central Railways Company," a British undertaking. 



General Mario G. Mcnocal was elected President and Senor Enrique Jose Varona 

 Vice-President at a quiet election on November i, 1912. Less than 50% of the regis- 

 tered voters went to the polls. The election was a victory for the Conservative party, 

 which had a majority of some 13,000 votes and elected five governors, and secured two 

 senators in each of the provinces except Camaguey where because of the recent death of 

 a senator, three were elected. The eleven newly elected Conservative senators together 

 with two senators formerly Liberals, who fraternised with the Conservatives because of 

 local issues, gave the Conservatives a strength of thirteen against an opposition of eleven 

 in the senate. 



In the lower house, after May 20, 1913, when the newly elected ministry comes into 



