THE CUBA REVIEW 



Havana Correspondence 



ELwANA, Sept. 19, 1923. 

 Sugar: Central Santa Lucia, the last of the sugar mills to finish the grinding 

 season, closed on September 6thj the outturn for the season being 155,401 bags. This out- 

 turn is considerably less than estimated at the beginning of the season, due to lack of 

 rain during the season at times when most needed. The total output for the 1922-1923 

 crop by Provinces, according to figures furnished by the Cuba Sugar Club, are as 

 follows : 



No. of Mills No. of Tons 



Pinar del Rio 10 119,753 



Havana 17 254,927 



Matanzas 29 436,654 



Santa Clara 57 726,956 



Camaguey 27 1,092,112 



Oriente 43 963,518 



From the above estimate it will be seen that the 183 active mills ground a total 

 of 3,593,920 tons of sugar during the season. 



Indications are that very little new planting will take place this fall, and it is, 

 therefore, not expected that next season's crop will differ very widely from that of the 

 present one. Weather conditions, of course, play an important part in the final outturn 

 figures, but as one section of the country is favored one season and another the next, 

 taking a general average, this would not have very much bearing on the final figures. 



Active preparations are being made throughout the country for the harvesting of 

 the 1923-24 crop, and many additions and repairs are being made to the various mills. 

 Two new sugar companies have recently been formed, the Holguin Sugar Company, 

 which will plant cane in the vicinity of Cacocum in Oriente Province, and the Compania 

 Azucarera de Santa Lucia, which company it is thought will assume operation of Central 

 Santa Teresa in Santa Clara Province. 



Financial Situation : As an indication of returning prosperity it may be cited 

 the Customs collections for Havana, during the month of August, 1923, were 83,095,681 

 as compared with $1,217,258 for the same month of the previous year. The recovery 

 of business in general has had its corresponding good results in solving the unemploy- 

 ment problem which existed at this time a year ago. 



Naturally, the country has not fully recovered from the depression of 1921 and 1922, 

 but all present indications point to complete recovery in the early future. Sugar prices, 

 which have held up remarkably well during the entire season, have enabled many of the 

 mills to pay off a large part of their indebtedness, and next season a great deal of the 

 money received from sugar sales will stay in the hands of the owners of the Centrals 

 rather than pass along to the banks in liquidation of indebtedness, as has been the 

 case for the past two or three seasons. 



A payment of 5% to all the creditors of the Banco Espanol de la Isla de Cuba, 

 one of the several banks which failed in the fall of 1920, was recently made. This is the 

 first intimation that anything tangible was left with which to pay off the creditors, and 

 it is not anticipated that very many additional payments will be made. It has been 

 rumored that the Banco Nacional de Cuba would also pay something to its creditors, 

 but as yet no announcement has been forthcoming from the Liquidation Committee. 



Announcement has been made by the Bank Liquidating Committee of the sale by 

 public auction of the cigar factory of H. Upmann, the proceeds of the sale to be used 

 for satisfying creditors of the Upmann Bank which failed some time ago. 



Political News: Probably the outstanding political event of the month was the 

 Meeting of the Veterans held at the Marti Theater on August 29th. resulting in an or- 

 ganization of the Veterans which has become known as 'The \"eteran Movement," 



