THE CUBA R E V I !•: W 



11 



Various sclienics were being concocted 

 whereby water supplies of various muni- 

 cipalities, including Havana, were to be 

 leased or sold outright to corporations, 

 and it was for the purpose of preventing 

 such action that the bill was passed. 



Havana's cattlemen claim 

 Protest an increase of 25 per cent 

 Tax in their taxes by the pro- 



Jiicrcasc vincial council is an injus- 

 tice to them and illegal 

 and they refused to provide cattle for 

 slaughter until the tax was removed. 

 Hotels, restaurants and even hospitals 

 were without sufficient meat for many 

 days. 



Governor Asbert's opinion was that the 

 tax was of little importance as far as 

 the cattlemen were concerned. He said 

 the increase would mean more than 37 

 cents for each beef and taking the 

 average weight at 300 pounds the new tax 

 would only mean 3 1-3 cents more for 

 each 25 pounds and as they would cer- 

 tainly raise the price to the public at least 

 one cent per pound because of the tax, 

 tbe}^ would actually gain 22 2-3 cents on 

 each 25 pounds. 



The strike of the Havana cattlemen was 

 followed by strikes in Matanzas, Camaguey, 

 Santa Clara and Pinar del Rio provinces. 

 The legisaltures of each of these prov- 

 inces passed an increase in the tax of 

 twenty-five per cent and the increase in 

 Matanzas led not only to a strike of the 

 slaughter house people but in business 

 places as well. The strike in the latter 

 citj' was successful, the provincial gov- 

 ernor assuring the strikers that the tax 

 will not be collected. 



In Santa Clara workmen took advantage 

 of the action of the cattlemen to make a 

 demand for an increase in wages. 



On July 4th President Gomez tele- 

 graphed the provincial governors request- 

 ing them to try and have the extra tax 

 removed. 



All passenger steamers 



Wireless coming to Cuban ports will 



Equipment be compelled to be equipped 



Required with wireless telegraphy if 



the law recently passed by 



the Cuban Senate is also adopted by the 



House. 



The law stipulates that all merchant 

 ships destined for the transport of pas- 

 sengers shall be equipped with apparatus 

 for the transmission and reception of 

 wireless messages and operated by com- 

 petent operators. All infractions of the 

 law^ shall be punished with a fine of one 

 thousand dollars for each time a ship 

 enters the harbor without the equipment. 

 Consignee and ship owner will be re- 

 sponsible for the payment of the fine and 



the boat shall not be allowed to clear port 

 until settlement is made. The fines will 

 be collected by the collector of the port 

 entered by the ship at fault. 



When the ship breaking the law is of 

 foreign nationality and arrives at a Cuban 

 port for the first time, then the secretary 

 of the treasury is empowered on recom- 

 mendation of the collector of the port 

 entered, to remit the fine. 



It was reported in Havana 

 Rumor of July 6th that United States 

 Minister Minister John B. Jackson 

 Jackson would be transferred from 

 Cuba because he failed to 

 report on the port's improvement law cov- 

 ering the concession for all lighterage 

 work given to the Cuban Port's Company. 



La Lucha, of Havana, a prominent daily, 

 promptly prints an interview with Mr. 

 Jackson, which follows : 



"We talked to him about the causes on 

 which these rumors were founded, which 

 is nothing more than the dredging law, 

 and Mr. Jackson answered : "But that is 

 already a law. The United States never 

 supposed that this law could affect any of 

 the treaties existing between it and Cuba, 

 and although it did not seem right that 

 Cuba should bind herself to a concession 

 for such a length of time, it made no ob- 

 jections to the said law^" 



Mr. Jackson told us that shortly he had 

 the intention of leaving Cuba with a leave 

 of ten days, which his government had 

 granted him ; but that in view that his two 

 secretaries, who were then absent, had 

 been transferred to other countries, he 

 could not leave the legation until the two 

 new secretaries arrived here, and that he 

 did not know for sure when these would 

 arrive. 



On June 29th President Taft sent to the 

 senate the nomination of H. S. Gibson, of 

 California, to be first secretary of legation 

 at Havana. He will succeed Norval Rich- 

 ardson. He also sent the name of William 

 Wallace to be the second secretary of lega- 

 tion in the same cit}^ 



A great reduction in the 

 Bills customs duties will be 



Before granted the first three in- 

 Cougress dividuals or corporations 

 which install a new in- 

 dustry in the island, under the provision of 

 a new law introduced into congress, which 

 provides a reduction to only twentj' per cent 

 of the present duties on any machinery 

 which may be needed by the new enter- 

 prises and also the same reduction for all 

 materials such as raw products unproduced 

 on the island and the concession is to last 

 for five vears. 



