THE CUBA REVIE W 



11 



NEW ADMINISTRATION CHANGES AND ACTIVITIES 



Dr. Pablo Desvernine y Galdos, Presi- 

 dent of the Xational University of Cuba, 

 was appointed Cuban Minister to the 

 United States, succeeding Senor Antonio 

 Martin-Rivero. who has been Minister to 

 the United States since April 11, 1911. 

 Dr. Desvernine is a lawyer and is a friend 

 of President Alenocal. He was a member 

 of the special mission sent to Washington 

 to attend the inauguration of President 

 Wilson. 



Prior to that he served as Secretary of 

 the Treasury under General Wood and 

 later as one of the members of the Ad- 

 visory Board which framed the laws of 

 Cuba during the ^lagoon administration. 

 He has for years been instructor of civil 

 law in the Havana University. Dr. Des- 

 vernine will not leave for Washington un- 

 til the latter part of this month. 



The resignations of the following min- 

 isters have been accepted : Messrs. Aniceto 

 Vallivia y Sisay. Tomas Collazo y Tejada, 

 Mariano Aramburo y ]\Iachado and Justo 

 Garcia Velez, formerly representing Cuba 

 at Christiania, Paris, Chili and Madrid. 



Col. Justo Garcia Velez was later ap- 

 pointed Supervisor of the Territorial Bank 

 succeeding Francisco Lopez Leiva. 



The following Cuban diplomats retain 

 their places under the new administration: 

 Messrs. Carlos Garcia \^elez, Francisco 

 Zayas y Alfonso. Juan de Dios Garcia 

 Kohly, Benjamin Giberga y Gali, accredited 

 respectively as Ministers Plenipotentiary 

 to London, Brussels, Holland and Rio 

 Janeiro. 



Dr. Gonzalo de Quesada remains as Cu- 

 ban Minister to Germany. Sr. Marquez 

 Sterling, now at the Mexican post, will, it 

 is understood be kept there. 



General Carlos Rojas, of the Cuban 

 army, has been appointed minister of Peru. 

 He will relieve Colonel Aguirre. 



Mr. Mariano Rocafort, the Consul-Gen- 

 eral at New York, will be transferred to 

 Barcelona, taking the same official rank. 



President Menocal, at the suggestion of 

 Secretary Villalon of the pui)lic works, has 

 appointed Luis F. Perez, engineer for the 

 province of Pinar del Rio. Perez was 

 formally attached to the Chaparra sugar 

 mil!, and is a classmate of the President. 



A recent bill introduced in Congress pro- 

 vides for a life tenure of office of all 

 judges. The argument of the bill is that 

 the judiciary should be assured of tlieir 

 office, and thus be in a perfectly untram- 

 meled position, all tending to better service. 



President Menocal is asking Congress 

 for a larger appropriation, about $12,000, 

 for legations in England, United States, 

 Argentine, Germany and Norway, holding 

 that the amounts already allowed' were too 

 small to properly maintain the dignity of 

 these offices. In order that there may be 

 no real additional expense to the state he 

 suggests the abolishing of the following 

 unimportant diplomatic offices : 



Sub-consuls at Rio Janeiro and Shang- 

 hai, first chancellor to the consulate gen- 

 eral at New York, first chancellor to Paris, 

 consul, second class, at Gonaives, first chan- 

 cellor at legation to Haiti, vice-consul at 

 Rome, and expenses of Gonaives, Haiti, 

 will be abolished. This will effect a saving 

 of $11,600. 



Objection having been made to Secretary 

 of Public Works Villalon to the retention 

 in his office of ^Manuel Roca, paymaster, 

 it being alleged that he was a Zayista or 

 Liberal. Secretary Villalon replied that 

 Roca was an honest man and he wants 

 and would keep such men in office. 



The President has asked Congress to 

 omit from the budget the item of $25,000 

 which for the last four years has been al- 

 lowed the chief executive for secret ex- 

 penses and for which there is no account- 

 ing required. The President said in a 

 message on the matter : "Such expenses 

 are unnecessary in a free and democratic 

 country, inasmuch as the Republic has suf- 

 ficient police to properly protect the state 

 of disturbances, and holds that there is no 

 Iietter way to reduce the high customs 

 duties now prevailing than to reduce the 

 government expenses, thereby removing 

 the need of the high duties." 



The Cuban Post Office Department has 

 reconnnended the negotiation of a parcel 

 post treaty with the United States on con- 

 dition that the latter permit the shipment 

 of small packages of tobacco which has not 

 heretofore been permitted under the Amer- 

 ican regulations. 



The two contracts upon which bids had 

 l)een asked and given were declared null 

 and void May 30th by presidential decree. 

 The first was the contract for the erection 

 of an electric light and pumping plant at 

 Santiago de Cuba, and the other was the 

 contract for the building of the ATalecon 

 from its present end to the .\lmcndares 

 River. 



The Ciil'.an g^uernmcnt lias been notified 

 <if the api)ointment of Sr. Raul Regis de 

 Olivera as i'rnzilian minister to Cuba. Sr. 

 Olvera succeeds Sr. Foutitoura Xavier. 



