10 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



Over $1,000,000 in claims 

 Negro against the Cuban govern- 

 Uprising ment has already been filed 

 Claims by Spanish subjects on ac- 

 count of alleged damages 

 arising from the recent negro uprising, says 

 the Havana Post. The claims have been 

 filed with the Spanish minister and the 

 legation is tabulating them and preparing 

 them for presentation to the Cuban State 

 Department. 



The claims of Spanish subjects will far 

 surpass those of all other nations, as the 

 principal losses sustained on account _ of 

 the uprising were by Spaniards, and mainly 

 consisted of country stores which were 

 sacked and in many instances burned. 

 Several coffee plantations owned by Span- 

 iards also make a large item in the claims 

 as they were compelled to pay large sums 

 to the negro leaders. Two coffee planta- 

 tions were burned. 



The claims of American citizens are said 

 to be light and will not pass the $SOO,000 

 mark, if they reach that figure. 



The American claim for 

 Others $558,000 against the republic 

 Want the of Cuba in connection with 

 Money the Cienfuegos water works 

 contracts has not yet been 

 paid, in the opinion of Mark M. Salomon, 

 president of the Latin American Contract- 

 ing and Improvement Company. The State 

 Department's intervention in the matter of 

 the claim surprised Mr. Salomon, who said 

 August 29th: 



"Our company on August 17th last wrote 

 to the secretary of state at Washington 

 saying that the Cuban republic has already 

 recognized our claim and respectfully sug- 

 gesting that the situation is not one calling 

 for diplomatic intervention on^the part of 

 the United States government." 



President Salomon has written to the 

 State Department calling attention to the 

 newspaper despatches saying that the $558,- 

 000 has already been paid to Minister 

 Beaupre at Havana. The newspaper de- 

 spatches have said also that Hugh A. 

 Reilly is the claimant in whose behalf the 

 American government has taken so active 

 a stand. Mr. Solomon says that Reilly's 

 claim is without foundation and that the 

 money is due his company under an as- 

 signment. 



"If the articles which have recently ap- 

 peared in New York papers to the effect 

 that upon the insistence of the Arnencan 

 government the amount of this claim has 

 been paid to Mr. Reilly are confirmed, 

 continued Mr. Salomon, "it is the intention 

 of the company to exhaust every means in 

 its power to enforce its rights not only 

 against him (Reilly) but against the re- 

 public of Cuba and if necessary against 

 the government of the United States. — 

 Nezv York Sun, August 30th. 



The Cuban government on 



Employers' August 21st was formally 



Liability notified by the government 



Law at Washington that the 



latter country would view 



with regret a law which might interfere 



with the business of American insurance 



companies which have branches in Cuba. 



It is also stated that similar objections 

 were voiced by the English minister in 

 behalf of the insurance companies of his 

 country which do business in Cuba. 



The Employers' Liability Bill which 

 has brought out these official objections 

 stipulates that employers must insure their 

 employees in a corporation which is to be 

 formed for that purpose, thereby creating 

 a monopoly. 



Cuban comment was to this effect : 



The Cuban government having recently 

 received two notes from Washington re- 

 garding a certain concession, the granting 

 of which the United States government 

 deemed unwise, the Nezv York Herald thus 

 sums up administration conditions in Ha- 

 vana : 



"There are surface indications that 

 diplomatic relations between the United 

 States and the present Cuban administra- 

 tion just now are those that exist betwet-n 

 a small boy bent on squandering the con- 

 tents of his penny savings bank unwisely 

 and his guardian who catches him in the 

 act of bursting it open with the family 

 hatchet." 



"The terms of the notes which the ad- 

 ministration is receiving nowadays from 

 Washington are more like orders," says La 

 Lucha of Havana, and "the pity of all this 

 IS that these weekly warnings which in- 

 volve most shameful ratifications fall upon 

 the people who are in no way responsible 

 for them. And the more sorrowful part 

 of the whole thing is that all the ratifica- 

 tions which the government had made of 

 its acts has not responded to the clamors 

 of public opinion, but in response to noise 

 from a foreign government." 



From inside official sources, 

 To said the Nezv York Ameri- 



Handle can on September 10th, it is 

 Cuban learned that the United 



Money States authorities, under 

 the personal advice and di- 

 rection of President Taft, "have practically 

 determined to place an American represen- 

 tative in charge of the customs and to man- 

 handle the staggering finances of the island 

 republic. 



"The most conservative of Cuba business 

 men know of this and approve the program, 

 feeling that the fiscal intervention is neces- 

 sary." The American says further: "Presi- 

 dent Gomez and his advisers are opposed to 

 interference of any sort, but are powerless, 

 in the face of the present conditions." 



