THE CUBA REVIEW 



17 



GENERAL NOTES 



INCREASED IMMIGRATiON 



There are over 4,000 Spanish immigrants 

 expected to arrive in the twelve steamers 

 which are due in Havana this month. 



The Cuban Department of Agriculture 

 has agents abroad whose duty it is to aid 

 in interesting Ukel}' people to go to Cuba. 



Custom house officials at Santiago have 

 asked that the w-harves in the harbor be 

 put in thorough repair. They are at pres- 

 ent in a bad condition and merchandise is 

 not sufficiently protected from storms. 



RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION 



The building of the railroad which the 

 Atlantic Fruit Company is building to unite 

 Sagua de Tanamo w^ith Cayo Mambi is 

 rapidly proceeding and it is believed that 

 the new branch will be in operation early 

 in 1914. 



The city of Pinar del Rio needs a filter- 

 ing plant, for its water system supplies 

 liquid mud. Five thousand dollars was 

 once appropriated for the purpose but the 

 cost of the plant would be $22,000. 



Cuban Mining Matters 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WINS SUIT 



The Spanish-American Iron Company, 

 which is the owner of many iron mines in 

 Oriente Province, has won the suit which 

 for years has been waged in the Cuban 

 courts and w-hich involves several mining 

 claims said to be worth many millions. 



This case grew out of a mining claim 

 filed by Harry C. Maud and Charles B. 

 Rhodes, two British subjects, for valuable 

 iron ore deposits in the Mayari "mountains, 

 which they termed "ochre." The Spanish- 

 American Iron Company appealed against 

 this concession alleging that the material 

 was not ochre, but iron ore, and therefore 

 subject to a previous claim filed by that 

 company and covering the district claimed 

 by Maud. 



The Cuban Department of Agriculture 

 later decided in favor of the Spanish- 

 American Iron Company, and under decree 

 of December .5, 1911, the company's rights 

 were confirmed. 



The case was then taken by Rhodes and 

 Maud to the Audiencia in a suit to have 

 the courts review the action of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, but the Audiencia de- 

 clared that it had no jurisdiction. It was 

 then appealed to the Supreme Court, which 

 on December 18th handed down its deci- 

 sion that it was incompetent to hear the 

 case on the ground that it was the result of 

 an administrative decision, a decree of 

 President Gomez, issued December 5, 1911, 

 not subject to review. 



This decision means a confirmation of 

 the Spanish-American Iron Company's pos- 

 session of the mines. 



del Rio. It is stated that Cuban and Span- 

 ish capitalists will supply the necessary 

 funds to full}' exploit the mine. 



ORIENTE PROVINCE MINES 



An Havana paper recently stated that 

 there was developing" a scarcity of mineral 

 at the Cobre mine in Oriente Province. 



The same authority said that the com- 

 pany would be obliged to search for other 

 veins which up to the present tiine have not 

 been discovered and that the copper de- 

 posits of this famous mine had been ex- 

 hausted. At the office of the Spanish- 

 .\merican Iron Company in New York City 

 it was stated that there was no truth in this 

 report ; that the company has plenty of 

 copper ore in sight. 



La Lucha stated that the Cuero copper 

 mines in Oriente Province would shut down 

 indefinitely on December 15th owing to the 

 lack of demand for the ore. At the office 

 of the Cuba Copper Company in New York 

 it was stated this story was true. 



Work will soon begin at a copper mine in 

 Pinar del Rio Province. It is situated near 

 Esperanza on the north coast and near to 

 the highway which joins Vinales and Pinar 



CUBAN MINING OPERATIONS CURTAILED 



A despatch from Pittsburg, Pa., states 

 that mining operations of American com- 

 panies in Cuba are being cut sharply as a 

 result of the contradiction in the demand 

 for iron ore in the East. Merchant inter- 

 ests have no orders ahead, and furnaces 

 appear in no mood to place new contracts. 

 A number of them have relatively large 

 stocks. The Ponupo Manganese Co. is 

 shutting down its mines after having made 

 shipments of about 140,000 tons of mer- 

 chant ore to Eastern consumers last year. 

 The Spanish-American Iron Co. plans to 

 rut its Cuban operations to about half after 

 January 1st. 



