T PI E CUBA REVIEW 



Under date of December 

 Cuban 17th, E. Mackay Edgar of 



Ports the firm of Sperling & Co., 



Company London fiscal agents of the 

 Cuban Ports Co., issued an 

 official notice to bondholders and share- 

 holders of the Cuban Ports Co. saying that 

 he had received from Captain Eugene 

 Klapp, the president of the company in 

 Havana, a cable in which he stated that 

 there was every reason to e.xpect a satis- 

 factory and equitable adjustment of the 

 controversy with the government over the 

 Cuban Ports matter and that, pending a 

 final settlement, it was considered inad- 

 visable for any bonafide stockholder to sell 

 his shares. 



Captain Klapp also stated that he was 

 officiall}^ authorized to make this announce- 

 ment. Pending any further news there is 

 nothing definite to report as to the exact 

 lines on which the negotiations are expected 

 to be concluded. 



The English publications were naturally 

 very much pleased at this more favorable 

 turn of afi^airs. The ^ilanchester Guardian 

 said that "The Stock Exchange has been 

 confident for some time that the Cuban 

 government could not maintain its high- 

 handed action, and this became the more 

 certain when it was known that another 

 foreign loan was desired." 



The Pall Mall Gazette likewise attributed 

 the change in the Cuban government's atti- 

 tude to the fact that Cuba was looking for 

 more funds. It says : "Mr. Edgar's state- 

 ment would not have been officially made 

 without some real reason for belief in 

 speedy settlement. Cuba has found that it 

 was difficult or even impossible to nego- 

 tiate any fresh business in Europe if her ac- 

 tion in the Cuban Ports business went 

 beyond the limits of reason and honestv. 

 as it threatened to do. And she has wisely 

 compromised." 



China 

 Protests 

 to Cuba 



China has protested through 

 its minister at Havana to 

 the government against the 

 use of finger prints of its 

 subjects as a means of iden- 

 tification, because used only for criminals. 

 The minister declared that his nation would 

 consider such measures as an insult. 



The difficulty of distinguishing Chinamen 

 by their facial characteristics was found 

 extremely difficult and there has been, the 

 government claims, considerable frauds be- 

 cause of the similarity. Hence the sugges- 

 tion that a finger print on a Chinaman's 

 entrance papers would solve the difficulty. 

 The finger print idea for Chinamen is 

 not new in Cuba. 



Dr. Juan Guiteras, director of the de- 

 partment of health, recently exhibited a 

 document si-owing this was practiced as far 



back as the year 1857. The document was 

 a contract whereby a Chinaman agreed to 

 work for a firm a certain number of years 

 It was drawn m Spanish and Chinese and 

 beside the seal was the print of the index 

 nnger of the Chinaman. 



Amnesty 



Law 



Vetoed 



The Amnesty Law, which 

 was approved by Congress 

 after almost a year's fight 

 to get it through both 

 Houses, was vetoed by Pres- 

 ident Menocal on December 18th. 



The reason for his action was that the 

 provisions of the law included the cases of 

 too many public emplovees, charged in 

 many instances with malversation of public 

 tunds whose bondsmen would be the ones 

 to really suffer the consequences. 



The President also called attention to the 

 fact that amnesty was granted public em- 

 ployees who had wounded persons with 

 hrearms while such exemption was not 

 made in favor of private persons, which, 

 he decided was an irritating privilege. 



The bill freed rebels who had participated 

 in the last outbreak and former Liberal 

 office holders of the Gomez administration 

 who had been charged with various crimes. 

 Some of these men are now serving sen- 

 tences and others have not yet been tried. 



The bill provided for the"ir liberation af- 

 ter six months' imprisonment. It original. y 

 was intended solely to benefit the rebels in 

 the negro uprising, but later corrupt civil 

 employees and others were included as al- 

 ready described. 



General Gomez was requested to veto a 

 similar bill by the United States Minister 

 during his administration, as it meant prac- 

 tical emptying of all the prisons in Cuba. 



Ldo. Mario Garcia Kulily, cl miiiisli 

 en Espafia 

 Cuban Minister to Spain. 



