The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1921-01-28
NEGROES IN CUBA
PLOT A REVOLT
Indications Point to Island Being
on the Verge of an Uprising
for a Black Republic.
B0LSHEvIKI ARE AT WORK.
Fifteen Thousand Natives Said to Be
Ready to Fight to End White Rule.
Take Advantage. Of Present
Tangled Situation.

Havana. - Information either hat
reached or is on it's way to the State
Department which is likely to change
completely the entire course of tn,
American Investigation into condition:
In Cuba. 1t has been provided by Gu
bans themselves and by American:
who have come out Of the interior OF
the island republic and indicates thar
the country is on the verge of revo
luton by which the Islands negroes
intend to demonstrate their numerical
supremacy and build up another re
public In which black will rule white.
The immediate vehicle which will be
used as the basis for the outbreak will
be the tangled political and financial
situation arising out of the last Cuban
election-the situation which brought
Major General Enoch H. Crowder to
the island with the cloud of possible
American Intervention lowering above
his mission. This situation will reach
a climax in April, when the success
full candidates in the still disputed
elections should be installed.
1t Is the contention of the black pop
ulation that there will be no such in
augurals; that government authority
at that time will be nonexistent or
near to 1t, and that another such op-
portunity probably never will come to
them, particularly If the United
States, as everJ- one on the island an
ticfpates, straightens out the present
involved conditions either by inter-
vention or by more peaceable meas
ures.
What the negroes are seeking is no
new demand in Cuba. It has been a
bugaboo on the island since American
aid freed it from the clutch Of Spain.
They demand the withdrawal of that
section of the Platt amendment which
prohibits the establishment Of a po-
litical party based upon color. They
are ready now to launch what will be
known-what actually already is
known in the eastern and interior sec
tions-as the Independent Political
Party of Color. Under such a party
the negroes virtually could win every
elective Office in the country.
Their following was large, powerful,
and, of course, mostly ignorant. They
were beaten only after Estenoz was
hunted down and killed in the tropical,
jungle-like fastnessessof Orfente PROV
fnce, ii which the city of Santiago de
Cuba is situated and from where,
through mysterious channels, the revo-
lutionary bands drew their greatest
sustenance, not only in money, but
actually in food and other supplies.
The attempt of 1912 was compara-
lively feeble, according to those who
have brought reports of the contem-
plated uprising out Of the interior. 1t
was estimated by General Monteagudo,
then commander in chief of the Gu
ban army, that the followers of Es-
tenoz and Ivonet numbered not more
than 5000 in the field. Estimates
place the number of negroes pledged
to back the threatened uprising at
anywhere from 10000 to 5000. This
has been marshaled without
any effort at recruiting and without
use of the most pliable of all the
means, at the hands of the leaders,
which is playing upon the emotions of
the uneducated blacks at work upon
the big plantations.
Who the leaders of the present rev.
movement are is not gen
orally known, but men who recently
were in and near Santiago, Palma So
riano and other towns in that section
of Oriente province assert that the
expenses of the organiz-
ers of the movement is being extorted
from French coffee planters whose
acres about Santiago and from the
smaller planters in the more isolated
sections of the province.
Perhaps the greatest aid to the ne
groes has come from Bolshevik propa-
gandists. who literally have overrun
the island.