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THE CUBA REVIEW 



GENERAL COMMENT ON CUBAN AFFAIRS 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND CUBA 



Writing of the Monroe Doctrine Fred- 

 erick Upham Adams in the New York 

 American says : 



"The theory that the Monroe Doctrine 

 means a perpetual toleration of lawless- 

 ness and brigandage nas been discarded 

 so far as Cuba is concerned. The United 

 States has "interfered" twice m its affairs, 

 and there is not an intelligent Cuban who 

 does not know that the perpetuation of his 

 repubUc depends on the ability of its people 

 to maintain and properly administer dem- 

 ocratic institutions. The Gomez administra- 

 tion is charged with having established 

 the high record for graft and duphcity, 

 but President Mario G. Menocal is a man 

 of character and of marked constructive 

 energy, and those who know him best pre- 

 dict Vat he will place the Cuban Govern- 

 ment on a much firmer foundation. 



Bear in mind, however, that Cuba is the 

 sole nation for which the United States 

 has intervened to protect it against itself. 

 Cuba is no longer one of the "hands-off 

 Monoe Doctrine republics. It is impossible 

 to cite any rational reason why the United 

 States should make an exception of Cuba. 

 If it be just and moral and righteous to 

 tolerate anarchy in Mexico the same rule 

 of conduct should apply to Cuba. The latter 

 has never witnessed the butchery of an 

 elected executive by army officers who be- 

 trayed the man and the government they 

 had sworn to defend. 



The jingo press of Cuba and of all Latin 

 America is now engaged in reviling and 

 sneering at the United States because of 

 the failure to apply in Mexico the same 

 remedy as in Cuba. The charge is made 

 that Uncle Sam is either afraid of Mexico 

 or is too stingy to incur the expense of 

 enforcing order there. 



Under the circumstances it is impossible 

 to credit the Monroe doctrine for the sane 

 and sensible policy which we have pursued 

 with Cuba. The Cuban doctrine was one 

 of action. It was a notice to Cuba and to 

 the world that the United States would not 

 tolerate anarchy in Cuba. It was a guar- 

 antee that Cuba should not become another 

 Haiti. It was the application or ^ common 

 sense to an intolerable condition." 



El Mundo, an influential daily in Havana, 

 has its Httle fling at the United States along 

 the lines indicated by Mr. Adams. In a re- 

 cent issue it said : "The formidable fleets 

 that threaten Constantinople do not deter the 

 Balkans any more than the Mexicans are 

 deterred by the Yankee battleships in their 

 harbors and the Yankee regiments Hned 

 up along their frontier, which aim their 



guns but do not shoot. As for ourselves, 

 we Cubans fear the Protector only when 

 we see him in Camp Columbia. The Pro- 

 tector is terrible when we have him among 

 us but not when he thunders from Wash- 

 ington. Balkanians, Mexicans or Cubans, 

 we pay no attention to lectures, notes or 

 admonitions, warnings, or chidings." 



THE CUBAN POLICE FORCE 



"Much of the rioting in Cuba which can 

 be fanned by a skillful agitator into a form 

 of "revolution" could be nipped in the bud 

 if the police were not deterred from using 

 force through the fear of assassination." 

 This is the opinion of Major Frederick 

 A. Wells, commanding the First Battalion 

 of the Twenty-third Regiment, National 

 Guard, of Brooklyn, who has recently re- 

 turned from a visit to Havana, where he 

 witnessed the funeral of the murdered 

 Chief of Police Riva. 



Major Wells said further : "I happened 

 to be in Havana the day of the funeral. 

 I was told by Cuban friends not to miss 

 seeing it as I would see the native tem- 

 perament in the raw, 'without clothes on,' 

 as one Cuban forcibly expressed it. 



"The Mayor of the city had requested 

 that in order to show public appreciation 

 of the virtues of the dead police chief, the 

 general public should fall in line after the 

 passage of the body and make up an im- 

 promptu part of the funeral cortege. 



"This feature was the striking part of 

 the funeral. When the body had passed 

 the people fell in, but not in the way it 

 would be done up North. Here the march- 

 ers would form a line from curb to curb 

 and try to march with at least a semblance 

 ' of order. But not so in Havana. There 

 the people iust tumbled into the street, as 

 it were. There were fullblooded negroes, 

 young and old, poorly dresssed and in rags ; 

 there were white men with frock coats and 

 high hats rubbing elbows with men almost 

 in tatters, and there were women of all 

 ages and colors in the line. All pushed 

 and jostled their way along, with no 

 thought of order. Now and then would 

 occur congestion of the population that 

 would threaten to cause a riot. Then the 

 police would seek to get some form of 

 order, but their efforts were of little avail, 

 for they went about it in the gentlest sort 

 of way. Where the Brooklyn policeman 

 would tap an obstreperous individual on 

 the head with his club or jerk another into 

 place by his collar, the Havana police 

 would say, 'Please stand back,' or 'Don't 

 crowd, please.' 



"I was surprised at this conduct and told 



