18 



T H E C U B A RE V I E W 



THE PANAMA CANAL AND CUBA 



Culia will receive no benefit by the 

 building of the Panama Canal, according 

 to Leopoldo Cancio, former secretary of 

 the treasury of Cuba. The statement was 

 made in .Mr. Cancio's fifth lecture before 

 the Cuba chapter of the American Insti- 

 tute of Banking at its last regular meet- 

 ing in Havana in April. The lecture was 

 entitled : "The Panama Canal and Its 

 Efifect on Cuba." 



Among other things the speaker said : 



"By a strange paradox, Cuba, a country 

 in close proximity to Panama, will fail 

 to benefit by this new boon to civilization. 



"Logically speaking, Cuba is going to 

 meet a rival in the opening of the Panama 

 Zone to the markets of the world, but, 

 fortunately, her position with respect to 

 the United States' will offset the conse- 

 quent disadvantage and insure her contin- 

 ued growth. 



"A glance at the chart shows that Cuba 

 is practically in the same isothermal belt 

 as the countries bordering on the Canal. 

 Our foreign trade will naturally show the 

 financial bearing of the canal on Cuba, so 

 the question arises, what conunodities will 

 this country export and import as a result 

 of its inauguration? The answer in both 

 cases is, none, according to present indi- 

 cations. 



"The advantages gained from reduced 

 freight rates to Xew Orleans and other 

 shipping centers in the United States will 

 be a stimulus to the production of the 

 Panama Zone and a detriment to Cuba. 

 Commerce always seeks a market and mar- 

 kets follow the line of consumption, and 

 the outlet for those products will be 

 through the warehouses of North America 

 and not those of Cuba. 



"The impression that Cuba is in the di- 

 rect line of travel from Europe to Panama 

 is erroneous. Vessels of deep draught 

 from Western Europe will continue to 

 follow the present routes as marked by the 

 ocean currents, and after sailing down the 

 west coast of Africa will shape their 

 course westward to the Carribean Sea, by 

 way of the Windward Islands. 



"As speed will be an important element 

 in shipping, vessels will not be likely to 

 deflect from their course to visit Cuba, 

 even as a coaling station. 



"Nevertheless, despite all these draw- 

 backs, the progress of Cuba," said the 

 speaker, "is destined to be as remarkable 

 in the future as it has been in the past. 



"In Cuba the combined forces of nature, 

 man and capital have found a remarkable 

 theatre of action, and the markets of the 

 United States will more than absorb the 

 wealth of our fertile soil. We must 



recognize that the United States is still 

 a young and undeveloped nation. Texas, 

 with an area greater than Austro- Hungary, 

 contains only four million inhabitants, as 

 compared with fifty millions in that em- 

 pire: California, whose territory is greater 

 than that of Prussia, has but 2% millions 

 of people, as against forty millions in 

 that kingdom. As the wealth and popula- 

 tion of the United States increase, the 

 demand for Cuban products will more 

 than grow apace, thereby assuring the 

 economic future of our island. 



"The importance of Cuba to New York 

 and other Northern markets is apparent. 

 When we consider London and the cities 

 of Northern Europe, which depend for 

 their tropical supplies on colonies thou- 

 sands of miles across the sea, accessible 

 at a great expense of time, labor and capi- 

 tal, w'e are filled with a sense of admiration 

 that nature should have so blessed this 

 hemisphere as to place Cuba, a land re- 

 ferred to recently as the garden of the 

 earth in a Cuban banking report, at the 

 very portals of the United States, with 

 a capacity to stock the markets of her 

 great wealthy neighbor with tropical 

 sui)plies in a few hours." 



This address was rendered in Spanish 

 and translated by W. H. Morales, vice- 

 president of the Cuba Chapter, A. I. B. 



Spain's new minister to Cuba, who takes 

 the place of Sr. Cristobal Fernandez Vallin, 

 who left Cuba some months ago, is Sr. 

 Julian de Arroyo y More. 



Senor Fernandez Vallin, the former 

 Spanish minister to Cuba, will be sent to 

 Egypt. This action by the Spanish State 

 Department. sa\s the Post, is taken as a 

 reprimanil to Sr. \'allin for the interview 

 which he gave in Havana and in which 

 he criticized Cuban conditions. 



The Veterans" Association has selected 

 100 caliallerias (?.3,.'];!3 acres) in the Man- 

 zanillo and Guantanamo districts in Oriente 

 Province for division among farmers who 

 are veterans. The lands will be reserved 

 by the state and delivered to the veterans, 

 provided Congress authorizes the transfer. 

 President Gomez, it is said, favors the idea 

 of dividing the lands among the veterans 

 who will agree to cultivate them. 



Colonel Rafael Manduley. Liberal nom- 

 inee for vice-president, resigned April 

 .'iOth, following a disagreement with Dr. 

 Orestes Ferrara over the methods to be 

 followed to bring harmony in the Liberal 

 Party. The resignation was not accepted, 

 and Manduley later withdrew it. 



