14 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



PRESS AND INDIVIDUAL COMMENT 



MATTERS 



ON CUBAN 



CUBA LIBRE NO BOON 



yir. William Barnes, Sr., a well known 

 lawyer, takes an active interest in Cuban 

 affairs and now in his 89th year gives his 

 opinion regarding the vital question of an- 

 nexation. In an interview with a New 

 York Herald representative he says : 



"The United States has been compelled 

 to take possession of and intervene in 

 Cuba on more than one occasion. Our 

 task under the treaty with the Piatt Amend- 

 ment is the task of Sysiphus — the stone 

 continually rolls back on us. We have 

 shouldered the perpetual burden and can- 

 not escape it by non-intervention. We 

 must carry it as much as, if not more than, 

 if Cuba had been annexed. Vital American 

 interests, too numerous to detail, require 

 annexation, and Cuban interests would be 

 vastly increased in value, perhaps, twenty- 

 five or in some cases fifty per cent. 



"Why delay what in the course of events 

 must necessarily and inevitably occur, Cu- 

 ban annexation. 



"It lies almost within cannon shot of 

 our shores, and in case of any foreign 

 war could and probably would veto all 

 American foreign policies, and probably 

 join in alliance with our enemies, and give 

 a point d'appui, from which they could 

 most advantageously and strategically at- 

 tack our whole Atlantic seaboard, and the 

 cities of New York, Boston, New Orleans 

 and many other rich and prosperous 

 States. 



"Then after a destructive war of more 

 or less duration we should finally have to 

 buy Cuba from our opponents in order to 

 avoid such complications and damaging 

 wars for our children and grandchildren 

 and future unborn generations. Talleyrand 

 truly said that a diplomatic blunder was 

 worse than a crime. We seem destined 

 to learn the lesson only by sad and costly 

 experience. 



"If Cuba will not now vote enthusias- 

 tically for annexation it demonstrates that 

 the Cubans are now really our enemies at 

 heart and ready for any foreign alliance 

 that future intrigues or circumstances may 

 offer in the settlement of the Panama 

 Canal fortifications or otherwise. 



"These views are so strongly impressed 

 upon me that as an American patriot and 

 lover of his country I must submit them 

 to the calm consideration of my country- 

 men. Whatever may be the views of re- 

 publican or democratic politicians and 

 statesmen I feel that future events will 

 justify my opinions. 



"We blundered," he says, "in making 

 the treaty at Paris, instead of at Washing- 



ton. France held large Spanish loans and 

 her sympathies were largely pro-Spanish, 

 and nearly all Parisian influences, open 

 and subtle, were against us, and surround- 

 ings always have more or less unseen in- 

 fluences, like the air we breathe. And it 

 was a monumental blunder to re-surrender 

 to Spain and Cuba the island, which by 

 laws of war and international law was un- 

 questionably ours. Annexation to the 

 United States would have been really a 

 boon to the Cubans greatly in excess of 

 independence. 'Cuba Libre' was no boon." 



BELIEVE MENOCAL WILL WIN 



General Mario Alenocal is the Conser- 

 vative candidate, and he is reputed to be a 

 man of great ability and high character 

 as well as large wealth, says the Journal 

 of Commerce. New York. The impression 

 appears to be given in the course of the 

 campaign now going on that if he is elected 

 there will be a thorough-going investigation 

 of the financial operations of the present 

 government, to which Gomez and Zayas 

 naturally object. There also appears to be 

 a general belief that Menocal will win if 

 there is to be a free and fair election. 

 That is a difficult thing to be assured of 

 in a Latin-American republic, with the 

 existing government taking one side in 

 the contest. The United States is a good 

 deal concerned in having an election in 

 Cuba, the result of which will be accepted 

 and will give stability to its government. 



The "right to intervene" consented to 

 in the "Piatt Amendment" is such as may 

 have for its purpose "the preservation of 

 Cuban independence and the maintenance 

 of a government adequate for the protec- 

 tion of life, property and individual lib- 

 erty." This may be pretty broadly con- 

 strued and the United States government 

 is likely to be the arbiter as to the justi- 

 fication for intervening in any case. The 

 right of those who have the suffrage to 

 freedom in voting may be regarded as 

 essential to individual liberty, and the de- 

 nial of that right, or prevention of its free 

 exercise, may be a cause for intervention ; 

 but, to serve its purpose, it would have to 

 come before rather than after the election. 

 Otherwise, an election which was unde- 

 niably coerced or controlled by the present 

 government to give one party the victory 

 over the other might be followed by in- 

 surrection and a much more serious cause 

 for intervention. 



Senator Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, 

 the venerated patriot and lifelong Liberal, 

 favors Menocal. 



