New-York tribune., 1881-09-17
OBsTRUCTING CUBAN COy,fFBcr

He DpdiFSH NoNtTuincUJ Has ,JdSU issued
new set of regulations for the control of YES
sells entering the ports of Cuba, which appear
to be designed to hamper and obstruct the
commerce of the island by annoying foreign
ship captains and placing it in the power of
petty customs officials to infct upon them
heavy fines for innocent infringements of un-
usual and unnecessary requirements. These
new regulations are similar to those promul-
gated about ten years ago. which proved so
oppressive to American vessels trading with
Cuba that they were the subject of much dip
lomatic correspondence between Washington
and Madrid, and were finally set aside
Their restoration appears to be an
act of the Sagasta Ministry, and it is curious
fact that Sagasta, who lately returned to
power in one of the frequent mutations of
Spanish politics, was in Office as Minister of
Foreign Affairs when the older set of oppres-
sive rules upon which these recent ones are
modelled was put in operation. Sagasta Is
classed as Liberal, but it would be difficult
to devise more illbcral code for the gov
ernment of ship owners and masters than the
one which has just been published, presum-
ably by his authority, by the Captain General
of Cuba.
We have not space to specify all the Objec-
tionable features of the new regulations. A
few examples will show the spirit of eXaction
and obstruction which characterizes the whole
list The captain of vessel entering Cuban
port must deliver to the custom house two
copies of his manifest written in the Spanish
language. The manifests must furnish n list
OF the cargo, not in the usual manner required
by commercial nations, but in minutely pre-
scnbed ways. Thus, if the ship carries lumber
the exact number of boards or pieces must
be given, and if there is one board more or
less the captain mast pay a fine. Every trunk, box
or bundle belonging to the crew must be de-
scribed. Every article of provisions carried
Tor the use of tho crew must be separately speci-
ned, 9Bd If n ham can of tomatoes or n
pound OF butter is omitted heavy penalty is
incurred. Even vessels which put into n
Cuban port through stress of weather are re-
quired to present these absurdy detailed man
i'ests. ship from New Orleans bouud for
New York might put into Havana in a storm
and the captain might he absolutely incapable
of specifying in the Spanish language every
box, parcel and stick of firewood on board
but the customs authorities could shake the
law in his face and bleed him of from $40 to
$500 for each of score of violations of
which he might be technically but innocenty
guilty.
iuc INC Oh tupd Is ltS commerce. The island
is vast fertile tropical garden, producing
great crops OF sugar, an article which all the
world wants to buy. We in the United States
pay for Cuban sugar over sixty millions of
dollars annually in cash or in our lumber. inDle-
mcnts, machinery and general manufactures. 1t
ought to be as plain pkestaif to the Spanish
authorities that the freer the island is from har-
assing restrictions upon its trade the more pros
porous it will be and the heavier will be the
contributions it will make TO the clron-
ica'ly empty treasury of the King of Spain
The Spaniards seem, however, to think that
the way to govern their colonies ia to annoy
and opprcss them. Spanish colonial rule has
always been shortsighted arbitrary and unjust.
In Cuba 1t has been sagacious only in the
tenacious grip it has kept upon the island and
its comprehension of its great value as n
money-producing domain.