THE 

 CUBA REVIEW 



"ALL ABOUT CUBA." 



Copyright, 1907, liy the Munson Steamship Line. 



LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



QAI^DEN. 



Volume VL 



MARCH, 1908. 



Number 4. 



POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENT MATTERS. 





Although the day for the restoration of 

 the Cuban republic, on or before February 

 I, 1909, is rapidly approaching, Cubans are 

 doing little or nothing in preparatory work 

 for this important change. American gov- 

 ernment methods and officials have done 

 more than all other forces in this respect 

 by enforcing sanitary regulations, safe- 

 guarding life and property, improving public 

 buildings, installing water systems in cities 

 and instituting great public road construc- 

 tion. Cuban political leaders are doing 

 little or nothing to create an organized pub- 

 lic sentiment on which the republic w:hen 

 restored could depend for needful support. 

 And these conditions lead a Cuban news- 

 paper. La Correspondencia, of Cienfuegos, 

 to say : 



"The political situation is 



No the same as before; no vari- 



Political ations or new happenings are 



Variations, recorded. On one side, Jose 

 Miguel Gomez and his fol- 

 lowers, arrogant and decided ; on the other 

 side Zayas and his partisans, quiet and 

 easy, but actively working, and against them, 

 smiling but jealous, the moderates who' are 

 now posing as " conservatives." 



"La Nueva Aurora," of M'atanzas, says : 

 "The political leaders are a 'cloud of dema- 

 gogues,' and none of them inspire any con- 

 fidence.- Their ambitions," it says further, 

 "have given a death blow to' Cuban national 

 entity." 



As a result of conferences between mem- 

 bers of the Liberal party (Zayas faction) 

 and those of General Aleman, leader of the 

 "Nacional Liberals," and ex-governor of 

 Santa Clara, these two political elements 

 have united. Gen. Aleman agrees not to 



accept any political nomination. 



The newspapers report dissensions con- 

 sequent upon the fusion in the Miguilistas 

 party and among dissenters and conserva- 

 tives. 



The question of guarantees to be exacted 

 of Cuba for the maintenance of continued 

 peace when the intervention ends, has been 

 left open in Washington and will be taken 

 up definitely after the national elections, 

 as at present there is nobody in Cuba au- 

 thorized to act in any agreement with the 

 United States. The cartoon from La Luclia 

 aptly illustrates the situation and prevailing 

 opinoin. The United States gives guaran- 

 tees to Europe and asks them of Cuba as 

 being responsible not only to Europe, but 

 to all foreign property-holders in Cuba. 



Opinions are widely dififer- 

 The Question ing as to the necessities for 

 of guarantees. "Those request- 



Guarantees. ed," say El Mundo, "must 

 be also guarantees of our in- 

 dependence and sovereignty." El Triunfo, 

 a miguilista organ, is opposed to leaving 

 American soldiers on the island when the 

 provisional government 'departs. "It savors 

 of coercion," it says, "is intolerable and 

 opens the way to more serious conflicts." 

 The Diario says : "Leaving the American 

 soldiers behind would be a perfect godsend 

 to any Cuban government," and that most 

 Liberals hold this opinion. It does not 

 think that in the event of the restoration 

 of the republic "without leaving American 

 soldiers here, or modifying either in fact 

 or form the situation in which the Cuban 

 republic was in August, 1906," confidence 

 in the country public credit and the volume 



