THE CUBA REVIEW. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Major H. J. Slocum, U. S. A., Commanding the 

 Cuban Armed Forces. 



Barracks for the Rural Guards. 



Captain Dougherty, supervisor of the 

 Rural Guards of Puerto Principe and 

 Santiago de Cuba, has placed before Ma- 

 jor Slocum, chief of the armed forces in 

 Cuba, plans and specifications for tht 

 erection of new barracks in the follow- 

 ing cities: Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, 

 Nuevitas, Bayamo, Manzanillo, Remedios 

 San Cristobal, Myari, Moron, Guanta- 

 namo and Holguin. The cost of each 

 barrack will be about $6,000. 



Major Slocum is arousing the interest 

 of the business men in localities to be 

 favored with new Rural Guard barracks, 

 and these donate lands for the proposed 

 new quarters. The government is saved 

 a great expense, for the land required 

 for the various stations would naturally 

 have required the outlay of considerable 

 money. When the merchants were 

 shown the benefits in increased trade re- 

 sulting from the permanent presence of 

 a camp of 50 men, spending perhaps 

 $1,500 monthly, and the protection and 

 security it afforded to the whole section, 

 thev willingly donated the necessajry 

 lands. 



New Buildings for the Judiciary. — Act- 

 ing Secretary of Justice Landa is at pres- 

 ent on a visit of inspection of all the 

 courts throughOjUt the different prov- 

 inces and planning with the local judges 

 for the construction of adequate build- 

 ings for the judiciary. In Santiago de 

 Cuba a courthouse will be built at the 

 expenditure of the sum of $150,000. 



His plans are to build at the capital of 

 each province a Palace of Justice which 

 will house the Audiencia and the in- 

 structional and first instance courts. 



Havana and Matanzas have already ex- 

 cellent buildings, but the rest of the 

 provinces have lacked adequate quar- 

 ters. 



Pinar del Rio Imorovements. — Post- 

 master-General Hernandez during a trip 

 of inspection through the Province of 

 Pinar del Rio, accompanied by Lieut. - 

 Col. Greble, adviser of the Interior De- 

 partment, visited many tobacco planta- 

 tions, andi learned that the crop will be 

 the finest had in years, both in quantity 

 as well as in quality. The farmers are 

 thankful to the government for the great 

 transportation facilities afforded by the 

 network of roads which are being con- 

 structed and which open up the valleys 

 of San Carlos, Luis Lazo and Cabezas. 



The government is at present plan-' 

 ning a new road which passing through 

 El Sabalo will join the road from Pinar 

 del Rio to Guanes at Portales and which 

 will save the tobacco planters in the hills 

 about 50% in freight. 



The postal service. — ^Postmaster Her- 

 nandez says nearly every town in the 

 Province has already ' established! the 

 postal service and that telegraphic com- 

 munication will soon be placed at the 

 coast • points, such as Cortes, Arroyo de 

 Mantua, Dimas, San Cayetano, Playa de 

 la Esperanza, Remates, La Fe, El Sa- 

 balo and Punta de la Sierra. 



Homesteads for Cubans — The Advis- 

 ory Commission of Agriculture of the 

 Agrarian League has submitted to Gov- 

 ernor Magoon suggestions for a home- 

 stead law. The new law will recog- 

 nize as a homestead the property of any 

 Cuban citizen, one caballerii or less in 

 area, hedged on its boundaries and cul- 

 tivated, providing the owner resides on 

 the farm. 



Such homestead is free from execution 

 or attachment for debt except in case for 

 arrears in taxes and the commission of 

 a crime or misdemeanor by the owner. 



The right of homestead will subsist in 

 the owner or his widow and unmarried 

 daughters for a period of thirty years, 

 at the expiration of which period the 

 property will aeain be free of the ex- 

 emption from execution for debt. 



The animals, farmino^ instruments and 

 the fruits of the property will also be 

 included in the exemntion once the prop- 

 erty is properly registered as a home- 

 stead. 



The law also providles for a census of 

 all its farming lands throughout thfc 

 country and when a list is made of 

 these lands the Secretary of Agriculture 

 is instructed to make division of same 

 in farms of one caballeria to be dis- 

 tributed as homesteads among Cuban 

 citizens of age that may apply for same 

 in the order of their application. 



