THE CUBA REVIEW 



La Lucha of Havana re- 

 Colossal cently made the startling 



Expenditures statement "that the Cuban 

 government during the last 

 three years has squandered the stupendous 

 sum of one hundred and forty million 

 dollars." Following is the text of the later 

 editorial, the translation being that of the 

 Hazatta TclegrapJi : , 



"Speaking of our disastrous economic 

 situation, to which our highest officials 

 seem to accord no importance whatsoever, 

 blinded as they are by their own political 

 ambitions, we said that the terrible part 

 of it is how within a couple of months 

 we shall be able to meet our obligations, 

 the mass of which is far more than we 

 can bear. Returning to-day to the same 

 theme, for in our estimation nothing so 

 deeply interests us just now as the study 

 of our bankrupt economic condition, we 

 find it needful to call upon all of the 

 solvent classes to take common action that 

 shall guarantee that the forthcoming elec- 

 tion shall not result in a continuance of 

 the national disaster which goes by the 

 name of the liberal government. We said 

 that the present administration had squan- 

 dered about one hundred and twenty mil- 

 lions, but we were mistaken, for with the 

 amount of the last loan and sixteen and 

 a half millions and the amounts which 

 are due and cannot be paid, the cost of 

 the last three years of misgovernment and 

 the official avarice has exceeded one hun- 

 dred and forty million dollars. And as 

 further we said yesterday, we have not 

 one cent and we owe millions that it is 

 impossible for us to pay now, and that 

 we could pay only b\' mortgaging our fu- 

 ture more heavily, either by a new loan 

 or by continuing as heretofore, accumulat- 

 ing more and more debts, to wind up with 

 the dreaded economic intervention, more 

 shameful than a political intervention even, 

 because it would demonstrate our absolute 

 incapacity to administer our own affairs, 

 the most shameful and censurable inca- 

 pacity with which any people may be 

 charged." 



The State Department at Washington 

 has been sounded by the Cuban govern- 

 ment regarding the floating of a $15,000,000 

 loan with which to finish the pajmients 

 of the McGivney-Rokeby contracts and to 

 extend the work of sanitation and paving 

 in the recently settled districts of Havana. 



The last lean contracted by Cuba, for 

 $16,000,000, has been exhausted, says the 

 S'eTSJ York Herald of September 17th, and 

 the State Department has been informed 

 that unless another can be floated the pay- 

 ments on the contracts will have to be 

 made from ten per cent of the customs 

 receipts as stipulated in the treaty. 



In this connection considerable misappre- 

 hension exists as to the situation in regard 

 to the McGivney-Rokeby contract for 



sewerage and paving in the city of Havana. 

 Those contracts have been sublet, but it 

 is asserted that in regard to them the Cu- 

 ban administration has given no cause for 

 complaint except that for a single day it 

 did default in a monthly payment. 



It was recently reported that the Cuban 

 government had notified the Havana con- 

 tractors that all funds were exhausted and 

 no money on the contracts could be ex- 

 pected. As a matter of fact, the contracts 

 were much more involved than that brief 

 statement intimated, and payments will 

 continue as provided in the contracts,, 

 though these payments may well not prove 

 as large as the contractors expected. What 

 is exhausted is the part of the Speyer 

 loan that was to have been devoted to» 

 meeting $7,500,000 contracts of the McGiv- 

 ney-Rokeby concern. Payments for the 

 future will now come as originally pro- 

 vided, from a 10 per cent reservation of 

 the customs of the port of Havana. 



The original contract has been paid al- 

 most in full, but as tha. city grew under 

 American occupation, and lately under a 

 free government, the contracts extended 

 to almost twice the original size. It is 

 this extension that will he paid for from 

 the customs, but those customs are not 

 what was expected, and so the payments 

 will be smaller, and the work will have 

 to be extended over a longer period. That 

 will call for a reorganization of the con- 

 tractors' plans, and probably a reduction 

 of the working force. That seems the 

 extent of their grievance. 



President Gomez signed a 

 Caibarien decree awarding the $6,000 

 and Xuez'itas a kilometer subsidy for a 

 Railroad railroad line from Caiba- 

 rien to Xuevitas to the 

 Xorth Coast Railroad. 



The company getting the subsidy w^as re- 

 cently organized by Jose Miguel Tarafa. It 

 agrees to spend $27,000,000 on the railroad 

 and other enterprises, including building 

 two sugar mills of 400.000 bags capacity 

 each. It will also combine several other 

 railroads in the same province into one 

 svstem. 



Hugh S. Gibson, secretary 

 Gibson of the American Legation 

 Stays at at Havana, who was as- 

 Harana saulted by a Cuban jour- 

 nalist, will not be trans- 

 ferred according to an announcement made 

 by the State Department at Washington 

 October 14th. President Taft has directed, 

 in view of Gibson's familiarity with Ameri- 

 can interests in Cuba, that he be retained 

 there. 



Jamaica has removed the quarantine 

 against Cuba, maintained for two months. 



