The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-10-09
KEEPING UP
With
THE NE WIS
BY LUDWELL DENNY


urging repeal of the Plat amend
ment, which fixes the status of his
country as a virtual American pro-
tectorate.
Washington officials are vigorous
ly hostile to such a reported sug-
gestion by Machado Monday in a
welcoming address to the United
Spanish War Veterans convention
at Havana. He is reported to have
said that Cuba through development
had now come to actual complete
sovereignty, that there was no long
err need for the Plat Amendment
which was really morally non-exist-
ent.
He, therefore, proposed that the
United States in line with it's tradi-
tional democratic principles ought
to be, perhaps, the one obliged to
repeal" the amendment.
Although Machado has often been
the champion of this idea in the
past, notably in his campaign for
the presidency he has chosen dur
ing the last two years to let it fall
into the background while he
worked in close cooperation with the
Washington Government.
The idea of ending the American
protectorate over Cuba is said to
have wide popularity on the island,
and is supported in this country by
a group of liberals and a congress
sional minority. But it is anathema
to officialdom here.
n
TT can be stated authoritatlvely
n that there are two basic points
of present American foreign policy.
Those are to retain this Govern
mentS protectorate powers over
Panama and Cuba. Since there is
growing native resentment in both
Panama and Cuba against the stat
us, Washington officials, as a mat
ter of diplomatic expediency con-
sistently avoid all public discussion
Of these delicate issues.
Despite this outward reticence,
the State Department, in it's con-
tidential negotiations and contacts
with the Cuban and Panaman gov
ernments, has not and does not
bulge a fraction of an inch from
its position blocking loss of any Of
its original rights"
American policy toward Cuba is
motivated by American defense and
commercial interests. Because of
the close proximity of that island
to the United States mainland and
because it dominates the north At
lantic naval approaches to the Ca
ribbean and Panama Canal, this
Government feels it must retain
extraordinary defense rights in
Cuba.
Those defense rights are not ex-
hausted by the special privileges,
acquired through the Plat amend
ment, Of maintaining United States
naval bases. Such defense require
ments are also held to necesSitate
the right of intervention in an
emergency, as provided by the
amendment. This contingency COW
ers possible threats to the United
States and its commercial interests
on the island including a billion
and half dollars of direct invest
ment in Government bonds and Gu
ban industry.
The chief factor is sugar, which
dominates the economic life
Of the island and which in turn
virtually is dominated by American
capital. This Yankee sugar invest
ment is estimated by the American
Chamber of Commerce in Cuba at
$800,000000.
TIME Plat amendment was an
4 amendment to an army appro-
priation act approved March 2, 1901,
which provided that its terms should
be incorporated in the Cuban consti-
tuition and in a permanent Cuban
American treaty Besides giving the
United States naval and coaling
stations and other rights and regu-
lating Cuban fiscal operations, the
amendment provided in Articles I
and III:
1.-THE government of Cuba never
shall enter into any treaty or other .
compact with any foreign power or
powers which will impair or tend to
impair the independence of Cuba.
nor in any way authorize or permit
any foreign power or powers to OBJ
tain by colonization or for naval or
military purposes, or otherwise, lodg-
ment or control over any portion Of
said island.
That the government of Cuba
consents that the United States may
exercise the right to intervene for
the preservation of Cuban independ-
ence, the maintenance of a govern
ment adequate for the protection of
life, property, and individual liberty,
and for discharging the obligations
with respect to Cuba imposed by the
treaty of Paris on the United
States"
The amendment thus was so
drawn as to give the United States
complete and unquestioned right of
intervention, on its own and sole
discretion, even down to the point
of protecting property.
So far as present American off,
Gals go, there is not discernible the
least intention of modifying the
basic rights acquired by the Plat
amendment, much less of repeating
it outright as President Machado
urges.