THE CUBA REVIEW 



shou'icl be one of the highest bidders Pres- 

 ident Menocal will refuse to recognize the 

 priority given in the agreement. 



Alenocal is said to be acting on the advice 

 of Secretary Cristobal de la Guardia of the 

 Cuban Department of Justice, one of his 

 Cabinet officers, who has decided that 

 Speyer & Co. have no prior rights over any 

 other bidders. 



J. P. Mqrgan & Co.'s story, according to 

 the New York Sun, is that officers of the 

 Menocal administration came to them for 

 the negotiation of the large loan of from 

 $15,000,000 to $30,000,000. The position of 

 the Alorgan firm was that it was being 

 sought by the officers of the Cuban govern- 

 ment for the terms of a loan, and that it 

 was not entering into the held already pre- 

 empted by other bankers, as the officers of 

 the government acknowledged no agreement 

 that did not leave them free to negotiate 

 with whom they chose. 



It is considered very unlikely that any 

 definite action will lie taken by the State 

 Department. It was explained that Speyer 

 & Co. may go before the Cuban courts to 

 obtain an interpretation of the clause, which 

 they claim grants them perferential rights 

 in future loans, if the Cuban government 

 attacks the legality or constitutionality of 

 such an agreement. Ordinarily, nationals 

 of a government having claims against an- 

 other government are required to exhaust 

 all the means of obtaining satisfaction 

 offered by the courts of that ccpuntry before 

 they can call upon the executive power of 

 their own government to l)ack them through 

 diplomatic channels. 



It is, therefore, expected that the State 

 Department will reserve decision upon the 

 Speyer contract until the matter has been 

 finally acted upon in the Cuban courts. 



The erection of a monu- 

 Monumcnt ment in the yard of Punta 

 for the Castle, at the entrance to 

 Maine the harbor, in commemora- 

 tion of the Maine disaster, 

 is talked of in Havana. The turret guns 

 presented by the United States to the Cu- 

 ban government are to be placed on the 

 monument. 



A commission is about to be appointed 

 to design the monument, at the same time 

 bearing in mind its provisional character. 

 It is stated that when the condition of the 

 public treasury has improved, a splendid 

 permanent monument is to be erected as 

 the tribute of Cuba. 



ITALY S NEW REPRESENTATIVE 



Italy's new minister plenipotentiary and 

 envoy extraordinary, the Count Annibale 

 Raynaldi Massiglia, takes the place of Cav. 

 Giacomo Mondello in that post in Cuba. 



President Menocal makes 

 The the following estimate of 



National Cuba's income and expendi- 

 Bmitjct tures and the amounts re- 

 quired by the national bud- 

 get. The figures follow : 

 Income 



Custom house collections $29,100,000 



Port dues 1,400,000 



Consular fees 670,000 



Interior collections 1,450,000 



State properties 368,580 



Miscellaneous receipts 1,040,000 



Loan tax 3,000,000 



Lottery 3,200,000 



Posts and telegraph 1,000,000 



Total $41,828,580 



Fixed Expenditures 



Interest on $35,000,000 loan.... $2,614,500 



Interest on $16,500,000 loan 748,428 



Sinking fund — Interior debt... 595,035 



Special taxes 461,342 



Legislature 889,620 



Judiciary 1,843,480 



Total $7,152,405 



Department Expenses 



Executive 160,460 



State 913,724 



Justice 268,800 



Treasury 2,914,399 



Interior 11,066,273 



Instruction .5,126,818 



Public w^orks 4,415,965 



PubUc health and charity 4,201,171 



Agriculture, commerce and labor 1,251,420 



Additional expense 443,301 



Total $30,762,331 



or a grand total of expenses of $37,914,736, 

 which leaves a surplus of $3,913,844. 



The President in his message says that 

 he has calculated income on receipts from 

 July to October, as a basis ; heretofore re- 

 ceipts of a year preceding have been the 

 basis of estimate. Similarly, in his desire 

 to make the budget a faithful reflection of 

 Cuba's financial situation and of the an- 

 ticipations of the present administration, he 

 has included in his statement of receipts, 

 the port dues. 



He calls attention to the fact that al- 

 though at the time he took office there ap- 

 peared to be a treasury surplus of $2,007,- 

 081.64, of this sum $1,355,079.88 was due 

 for obligations already incurred and the 

 $652,061.72 was not sufficient to meet the 

 other obligations. 



The President says further that if all the 

 obligations Cuba must meet are listed (as 

 they were, in a previous special message), 

 then the budget must be increased to $45,- 

 573,210.79 in order that her fiscal affairs 

 may regain their standing. 



