THE CUBA REVIEW 



cording to provisions of law and to give 

 the bondholders, some of whom are inno- 

 cent, recourse to the courts of Cuba. 



Great profits were expected from the 

 concession, which provided for the im- 

 provement of various ports by the company 

 in return for the revenue derived from port 

 dues. One estimate of the profits was that 

 $45,000,000 would be cleared in thirty years, 

 the life of the concession, with' an actual 

 expenditure of about $10,000,000. The latter 

 sum was obtained by the flotation of a bond 

 issue in London. 



Under the terms of the concession, the 

 company is allowed to collect 70 cents for 

 every ton of merchandise imported from 

 the United States and 88 cents on that 

 imported from all other countries. For 

 this concession it agrees to carry out im- 

 provements in the port of Havana and va- 

 rious other ports of the island. These im- 

 provements under the terms of the con- 

 cession must be completed in six years and 

 will cost several millions more than the 

 total collected in that time from the tax 

 on merchandise. The company figures 

 that it will be eighteen years before it will 

 begin to pay dividends on its investment. 

 It admits that it will probably make $20,- 

 000,000 from the concession, but that this 

 profit will come eighteen or twenty years 

 after the concession has been in force. 



Religious 



Meetings 

 Prohibited 



Baptists in Havana have 

 been forbidden by the Mayor 

 to hold further open air 

 evangelistic meetings in the 

 streets. These have been 

 held in the poorer quarters of the city 

 where there was no church or other build- 

 ing available. 



Superintendent AlcCall of the Baptist 

 Mission in Cuba will appeal to the courts 

 believing that the constitution gives_ them 

 the right to hold religious services in the 

 public thoroughfares. 



This is the first time that any objection 

 has been found to such services since the 

 times of the Spaniards, says the Post. 

 From 1898 religious meetings have been 

 held not only on Sunday nights but week 

 nights throughout the city and never be- 

 fore have the authorities taken action 

 against them. 



The Cuban Senate con- 

 The Shooting vened in special session on 

 of July 25th and agreed to the 



General Riva request of the Supreme 

 Court for permission to 

 proceed with the trial of Senator Morales 

 and Representative Arias, who are ac- 

 cused of participating in the murder of 

 General Riva, Chief of the National Police, 

 who was shot down in the street in Havana. 

 The Senate later took up the question 

 of amending that part of the constitution 



LiKORio: Esta es la ley: "Todos los cubanos son 



iguales." Abajo la impunidad! El que la hace, 



que la pague. — El Veterano, Habana. 



No immunity for Congressmen. Liborio, as rep- 

 resentative of the Cuban people, says: This is the 

 law: All Cubans are equal. Down with immunity. 

 He who breaks must pay. 



iwhich grants- immunity to congressmen 

 guilty of crimes, a question which is arous- 

 ing the deepest interest all over the island. 

 It is the general opinion that this question 

 is far greater importance than the bring- 

 ing to trial of General Riva's murderers, 

 because it must be settled whether or not 

 the life of any one of the two million and 

 odd citizens of Cuba should be left at the 

 mercy of any of the one hundred and six- 

 teen men composing the two houses of the 

 national legislature. 



It is plainly stated that with the rights 

 of immunity waived a notable proportion 

 of the membership would at once become 

 liable to arrest and prosecution in many 

 instances on grave criminal charges. Out 

 of a total of ninety-two representatives 

 charges of one kind or another are re- 

 ported to be pending against twenty-five. 

 The proportion of accused in the Senate is 

 not so high. In all these cases the con- 

 sent of Congress to permit prosecution has 

 been demanded and refused. 



No further action by Congress has yet 

 been taken. 



