THE CUBA R E V I E W 



A 

 Nezu 

 Park 



It is proposed to make a 

 permanent public park of 

 the "Quinta de los Moli- 

 nos," where the Havana 

 horticultural exposition was 

 held during February and March. The cost 

 for securing sufficient grounds for this pur- 

 pose is estimated at $100,000. The new 

 ground is to be made a zoological park and 

 to be called the "Park of the Republic." 

 The "Quinta de los Molinos" was for- 

 merly the summer residence of the Span- 

 ish captains general in Havana and was 

 utilized for the same purpose by General 

 Wood. 



Work on building two of 



Xezu the big steel piers for the 



Havana customs wharves of Ha- 



Piers vana under the franchise 



granted the late Sylvester 



Scoville has begun with the arrival of the 



engineers. The piers will cost $3,000,000 



and are to be completed within the space 



of two years. 



MacArthur, Perks & Company, contract- 

 ors of New York and Ottawa, Canada, have 

 the construction work in hand. 



The two piers will be situated just north 

 of the Machina wharf, or in the sixth dis- 

 trict of the customs wharves. They are to 

 be built, 120 feet apart, of cement and steel 

 and will be covered and made fireproof in 

 their construction. 



The piers are to be used as bonded ware- 

 houses and will insure protection to the im- 

 mense shipments of ships' cargo which is 

 now necessarily exposed to the elements on 

 the open wharves in the customs yards. 

 The remaining two steel piers will be situ- 

 ated beyond the customs house. 



The improvements of the 

 Dock Havana Coal Company at 



Changes Casa Blanca consist in the 

 construction of an addi- 

 tional steel and concrete wharf, parallel to 

 its present wharf extension. 



The company also purposes to cut the 

 Cabanas roadway where it forms a curve, 

 and to continue a right of way measuring 

 five meters in width where a landing place 

 will be constructed. 

 The total cost is estimated at $167,950. 



The plans of the Havana city council to 

 float a $28,000,000 loan were thwarted by 

 Governor Asbert of Havana Province, who 

 held that the council had violated the con- 

 stitution and the municipal law because of 

 their failure to specify the uses to which 

 the money to be borrowed was to be put, 

 and because of the failure to provide for 

 the referendum vote. The governor there- 

 fore issued a decree suspending the reso- 

 lution. 



A committee from the 



To Dredge Chamber of Commerce 



Cuban called upon President Go- 



Ports mez on February 18th to 



protest against the harbor 



dredging bill, which they condemned as an 



attempt to foster a monopoly. They urged 



the president to veto the measure. 



Nevertheless the president signed the bill 

 the following day, previously passed by 

 congress. 



The measure grants a thirty-year con- 

 cession to the Compania de Dragado de 

 Puertes, of which T. L. Huston is the head. 

 It is to dredge and improve all harbors 

 and in return is permitted to collect a toil 

 of a dollar a ton on all foreign imports, 

 80 cents a ton on those from the United 

 States and 10 cents from the coal company. 



In return for this the company agrees to 

 execute a general plan of dredging for the 

 port of Havana, including the removal of 

 all the wrecks on the bottom, the construc- 

 tion of a sea wall and to dredge and im- 

 prove all the ports and harbors of the is- 

 land and to keep them clean for thirty 

 years — that is to say during the life of the 

 concession. 



The improvements required for all the 

 ports are estimated at $24,000,000 and the 

 cost of maintenance at $6,125,000. 



It is probable that the company will issue 

 $10,000,000 in securities. 



The State Department has called upon 

 John B. Jackson, American minister to 

 Cuba, for a full report on this measure, 

 and while it has not filed a formal com- 

 plaint against the proposed law, the conces- 

 sion will be carefully scrutinized to ascer- 

 tain whether it will affect American exports 

 to Cuba adversely. 



The president signed on 

 February 16th a decree 

 Forces combining under one head 

 the rural guard and the per- 

 manent army with Alajor General Jose 

 Monteagudo as commander of the united 

 armed forces of the republic. The post of 

 major general recently filled by General 

 Pino Guerra is abolished. Under the com- 

 mander will be Brigadier Generals Riva 

 and Machado commanding the army and 

 the rural guard respectively. 



Sefior Francisco de Paula Machado, sec- 

 retary of the treasury, is to remain in his 

 office, the president having refused to ac- 

 cept his resignation, which had been re- 

 cently tendered. 



On March 7th, President Gomez par- 

 doned Jose Pennino, sentenced on February 

 26th by the Havana Audiencia to twelve 

 years' imprisonment for killing a journalist 

 named Juan Amer. 



