CRETE. 



CUBA. 



209 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 and cleared at Limon and Punta Arenas during 

 1900 was 605, of 689,460 tons. The merchant fleet 

 of Costa Rica consisted of 2 sailing vessels, of 

 541 tons, and 3 steamers, of 783 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The rail- 

 road from Limon to Alajuela, with its branches, 

 has a length of 137 miles. The line from San 

 Jose to Tiveves, 59 miles, will, when completed, 

 establish rail communication between the Atlan- 

 tic and Pacific coasts. 



The number of letters and other mail-matter 

 that passed through the post-office in 1899 was 

 1,772,914 in the internal and 637,163 in the for- 

 eign service. 



There were 880 miles of telegraph-wire in 1899; 

 number of despatches, 342,572. The telephone- 

 lines had a length of 200 miles. 



CRETE, an island in the Mediterranean, for- 

 merly a Turkish vilayet, since Dec. 21, 1898, an 

 autonomous province under the suzerainty of the 

 Porte administered by a High Commissioner of 

 England, France, Italy, and Russia. The High 

 Commissioner is Georgios, Prince of Greece, born 

 une 24, 1869, second son of Georgios I, King of 

 ;he Hellenes. He was appointed for three years 

 n Nov. 26, 1898, entered on his office on Dec. 21, 

 898, and was reappointed on Dec. 15, 1901. The 

 'onstitution was adopted on April 28, 1899. The 



igh Commissioner has supreme command of the 



ilitary forces. The legislative body is the 



ule, 64 members of which, of whom 3 are 



ohammedans, are elected by universal suffrage 

 for two years, in the proportion of 1 to 5,000 

 inhabitants, and 10 members, including 1 Moham- 

 medan, are nominated by the Prince. The elec- 

 toral system provides for minority representa- 

 tion. The Boule sits for two months every two 

 years. The ministers are appointed by the Prince, 

 and take part in the discussions of the Chamber 

 without having the right to vote. The repre- 

 sentatives at Rome of the protecting powers are 

 authorized by their governments to decide ques- 

 tions affecting the foreign relations of Crete. The 

 Council appointed on Sept. 7, 1901, was composed 

 as follows: Finance, J. A. Tsouderos; Interior 

 and Public Safety, Manoussos R. Koundouros; 

 Public Instruction, Worship, Justice, and Foreign 

 Affairs, A. D. Boreades. 



Area and Population. The island has an 

 area of 3,326 square miles. The native popula- 

 tion at the census of June 17, 1900, was 303,543, 

 comprising 269,319 Greek Catholics, 33,496 Mo- 

 hammedans, and 728 Jews. Compared with 1881 

 there were 62,256 more Greeks and 39,955 fewer 

 Mohammedans. The number of foreigners in 

 1900 was 6,096, including 3,593 Hellenes and 

 1,071 Turks. Canea, the capital, had 21,025 in- 

 habitants; Candia, 22,331. 



Finances. The revenue for the year ending 

 Aug. 31, 1901, was estimated at 6,471,860 drach- 

 mas, and the expenditure at 6,281.277 drachmas. 

 The revenue is derived mainly from direct taxes 

 and duties on consumption. The chief expendi- 

 tures were 1,789,553 drachmas for finance, 1,444.- 

 492 drachmas for communications and public 

 safety, 1,344,214 drachmas for the interior, 749.508 

 drachmas for public instruction, and 703,510 

 drachmas for justice. The intervening powers 

 promised to advance 4.000,000 drachmas to Crete, 

 and Great Britain and Italy did advance 1,000,- 

 000 drachmas each, Russia 352,500 drachmas, and 

 France 12,500 drachmas. This constitutes the 

 total public debt, excepting 1,500,000 drachmas 

 which the protecting powers in 1901 decided that 

 Crete should pay to the Ottoman Public Debt 

 Commission, besides the concession of the salt 

 VOL. XLII.- 14 A 



monopoly for twenty years, thereby canceling 

 all pecuniary claims of the creditors of Turkey 

 against Crete. 



Commerce and Production. The chief prod- 

 uct is coarse olive-oil from which soap is manu- 

 factured. Wine is made, and oranges, chestnuts, 

 and carobs are exported. The silkworm is raised. 

 Goats and sheep are reared. Commerce is car- 

 ried on mainly with Greece and Turkey. The 

 total value of imports in 1900 was 11,076,055 

 drachmas; exports, 5,590,436 drachmas. 



Political Affairs. M. Venezelo, whose pro- 

 posal to establish an independent autonomous. 

 Government in Crete, a principality on the model 

 of Bulgaria, resulted in his dismissal from office 

 by Prince George in 1901, took the lead of the 

 Opposition party. He did not propose a perma- 

 nent principality, but one which should serve as 

 a transitional arrangement and by the elimina- 

 tion of international control to a great extent 

 and the removal of the international troops 

 hasten the realization of a union with Greece. 

 The democracy of Greece, however, and the Cretan 

 patriots suspected an ambitious design of the 

 High Commissioner. The storm of popular dis- 

 approval evoked by his proposal caused M. Vene- 

 zelo to abandon the idea and put forward as his 

 program the earliest possible union with Greece 

 as the only solution of the Cretan question. 

 Demonstrations in favor of immediate union, like 

 those which in 1901 drew from the procecting 

 powers an admonition to Prince George declar- 

 ing their resolve to maintain the status quo, were 

 supported by all parties and elements except the 

 remnant of the Moslem population, reduced to a 

 third of its former numbers. The substitution 

 of a Greek force for the international troops was 

 urged by the Government as the general desire. 

 The Moslems insisted on the retention of .the 

 international troops, w T hose protection alone en- 

 abled them to live in the island. Those who still 

 remained were mostly congregated in the towns. 

 The small proprietors had sold or abandoned 

 their farms and the beys had parceled out their 

 estates among Christian tenants. The number of 

 Mohammedan officials was constantly decreased. 

 Parts of the Evkaf, or pious foundations, of the 

 Mohammedans were appropriated by the Chris- 

 tians. When some Mussulman boatmen were 

 murdered by Christians who had escaped the gen- 

 eral disarmament the Mohammedan community 

 of Canea appealed to the ministers of the four 

 powers at Rome and to the Sultan as suzerain 

 of the island to redress their grievances. A new 

 independent party was started by M. Koundou- 

 ros, who retired 'from the Cabinet in the begin- 

 ning of June and was replaced by M. Mylogian- 

 nakis. This party, which clamored likewise for 

 speedy annexation to Greece, was encouraged by 

 the Government as a rival to the growing Oppo- 

 sition party. The requests which Prince George 

 made to the powers on accepting a prolongation 

 of his mandate remained unanswered. In the 

 summer the High Commissioner visited St. Pe- 

 tersburg and Vienna. Although party spirit in 

 Crete raged more violently than ever, the Chris- 

 tian peasants, who form the bulk of the popula- 

 tion, were comparatively unaffected. They 

 reaped an abundant grain harvest in 1902 and 

 the grape and olive crops were excellent. 



CUBA, a republic in the West Indies. By the 

 treaty of peace between the United States and 

 Spain signed at Paris on Dec. 10. 1898. Spain 

 relinquished the sovereignty of Cuba and the 

 United States assumed the obligations for the 

 protection of life and property. United States 

 troops, already in occupation of parts of the 



