Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-28
AUTONOMY FOR THE CUBANS.
New Colonial Minister Outlines Re-
forms for the Island.
Home Rule Chief Feature-The
Colonists to Be Granted Control
of All Local interests An Insular
Parliament Shall Be Elected by
tho Same Suffrage System Which
Regulates Elections in Spain.

Madrid, October <27:-Senor Noret y
Prendergast, the new Colonial Minis
ter, has outlined his plans for Cuban
reforms as follows:
THE autonomy which the Cabinet
of Senior Sagasta proposes to bestow
upon the Island of Cuba and Porto
Rico in fulfllment Of the engagement
contracted in the manifesto of June "a
is a special autonomy founded on the
aspirations adopted in the platform OF
the Antillian autonomists and not
identical with the other colonial con-
situations. 1t is clear that in its es-
sential principles. the future constitu-
lions of Cuba and Porto Rico agree
with those colonial constitutions that
start from government as the cap
ital ea-self-legislation responsible
to the government and the supremacy
of the governor who either under that
name or that of viceroy shall repre-
sent the mother country and who shall
choose the ministers who shall be the
executive body in that colony.
Starting from the above basis the
project of the Spanish Government
contains the first partition of those
concerns that belong to the colonial
parliament and not the imperial parlia-
ment-that is, to the national cortes.
The partition is founded upon a care
full discrimination between what inter-
ests the islands themselves in a local
sense and what is of national import
ance.
1.-The project in operation will inter-
pref in the most generous manner in
phrase local interests since it will not
only grant to the colonists complete
control Of all that relates to education
al, charity, public works, insular navi-
cation, agriculture, industry, mines,
etc., but it also entrusts to the repre-
sentatives of self-government the
right of drawing up their customs tariff
without any limitations beyond those
mutually arranged.
"The above functions will be per-
formed by an insular chamber totally
electoral in nature, without restriction
as to subsequent subdivision into two
similar chambers-that is, the House
of Representatives and the Senate
Members of this parliament shall be
elected by the same suffrage system as
that which regulates the elections in
the peninsula. The same electoral
bodies shall elect deputies to the
Spanish cortes who are to represent
Cuba in tn imperial parliament. The
governor general, as the representative
Of the central power, shall choose the
ministers who are to be the executive
body responsible to the insular de-
partment, thus completing the reor-
ganization of the government and en-
dowing it with that degree of respons-
Utility characteristic Of every colony
administered on the principles of self
government.
"The ministers shall be responsible
to the colonial parliament and every
enactment of the governor general as
the representative of the executive
power in all that touches the local gov
prnpnnnt cbo11 no troo IN 1,o al
Of these ministerial functions reserved
to the metropolis are, first those that
concern international relations; sec
ond, military and naval matters; third
organization of the law courts in con-
formity with the laws regulating the
offices of the ministers, and fourth
those dispositions that regulate rela-
lions between the church and State.
cat the same time the new constitu.
ton shall grant to this Cuban people
the use of and the protection afforded
by the civil and political rights sane
toned by the Spanish constitution in
such manner that this shall obtain in
all its integrity in the colonies, while
beside there shall be established, as in
the United States, necessary positions
to prvent the colonial parliament
from any attempt to lessen, clog or
delimit the rights of citizenship that
| are set forth in the national constitu-
| ton"
Philadelphia, October 27-Dr. Jose
Congosto, Spanish Consul here, who
has just been appointed Secretary
General Of Cuba, says: "The govern
ing factor in my policy shall be liberal
ity and fairness toward everyone An
other change which l shall make will
be in the treatment of accredited repre-
sentatives of the American newspapers
Information which l possess which
can be made public will be at their dis
| position. The reforms to be instituted
are going to be genuine in every fea-
| ture and the policy of harshness that
has hitherto prevailed in the govern.
ment of the island will be swept away
without delay"