THE CUBA R K \- I !•: W 



19 



ONLY 5,000 AMERICANS IN CUBA 



iKrom i;. S. Consul Ceneral .lames L. Rodgfis. 

 Havana ) 



The last census of Cuba, that of 1907, 

 gave the American population as 6,713, of 

 which :;.91t7 were ir.ales and :2.71G females; 

 of this, 6,026 were white and 687 colored. 

 These American citizens were distributed 

 as follows : In Camaguey Province, 715 ; 

 in Habana Province, 3,706 (in the city of 

 Habana, 2,422) ; in Matanzas Province, 

 387; in Oriente Province, 1.009; in Pinar 

 del Rio Province, 46.5; and in Santa Clara 

 Province, 431. 



As this census was taken during the 

 early period of the last American inter- 

 vention in Cuba, it is extremely probable 

 that the American residents at that time 

 were much more numerous than at present ; 

 in fact, it is to be doubted if in the whole 

 of Cuba there are over 5,000 Americans 

 at the present time. There is absolutely 

 no waj' of determining this definitely, as 

 but a small proportion of them are regis- 

 tered at American consular offices. 



I am informed by the Deijartment of 

 Sanitation, under whose control comes the 

 department of the examination and regis- 

 tration of physicians, that it cannot at 

 present trace the American physicians, but 

 it is stated that the number is exceedinglv 



small. In the same census referred to 

 there were 1,240 physicians and surgeons 

 ot all kinds, of whom 1,084 were native 

 white and 9 colored, and 147 were foreign 

 white. The American physician and sur- 

 geon IS hardly in evidence in Cuba at all, 

 this being shown ])y the fact that in the 

 city of Havana there are only three li- 

 censed physicians and surgeons' of Amer- 

 ican nativity and about six dentists. 



MORE LIGHTHOUSES NEEDED 

 It is said that hydrographic knowledge 

 of the Caribbean Sea is scarcely more than 

 it was four centuries ago. According to 

 a writer in the Rez'iczv of Reviews, no 

 accurate chart exists of the south coast 

 of Cuba and its outlying keys. As com- 

 pared to the )ilediterranean coast, with its 

 534 lighthouses, the Caribbean, with a much 

 longer shore line, otters only 96. It is 

 apparent, however, that better lighting 

 and charting of the waters around Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Porto Rico and the Bahamas will 

 be a question for international considera- 

 tion. Xo less than fifteen different gov- 

 ernments have territories i)ordering on 

 this extensive Atlantic basin. Those spe- 

 cially interested in the matter propose that 

 a conference committee meet in Wash- 

 in"ton. 



\ ifw of the new custom house at Santiago, but recently finished. It 

 in dangei- of collapse through faulty construction, say engineers. 



