Evening star., 1937-10-22
Fraga, Cuba's Envoy, Says
3-Year-OId Plan Need Not
Scare u. S. Capital.

Cuba becoming pOtdIIdrldn SIdle.
so great is the lack of knowledge
of Cuba implied in that allegation" he
said, that only a strong desire to be
scrupulously fair and candid impels
me to make formal denial to this
malign situation, and to point out that
the objectives sought by the plan are
the very essence of just, constructive
and realistic democracy"
Likened to New Deal.
Ambassador Fraga said the aims OF
Batista were similar to the aims of
President Roosevelt, as set forth in the
New Deal legislation, and asserted:
fundamentally 10Th programs strive
for the same ultimate fdeal-a better
and happier life for the largest pos
sible majority of the people"
He described the opposition in Con-
eress to Batista's plan as ''of purely
political nature" and discounted its
importance in lieu of 1.-The old and
popular demands contained in the
project" declaring that most business
leaders and educators in Cuba were
behind the rehabilitation movement.
The most powerful investors in
Cuba" he said, the American owners
of sugar mills and sugar fields, ac-
cepted without any reservation the CO.
ordination of the sugar industry bill
which realizes the first chapter Of the
three-year plan"
AS to the ultimate effect of the
plan on relations between the United
States and Cuba, Ambassador Fraga
said that present relations were
HAPPY, friendly and really cordial.
and there is not a single reason why
they should not be, and 1 am posi-
lively certain that the realization of
the three-year plan will strengthen
them and establish a still better and
closer understanding between both
nations"
U. S. Capital Held Safe.
The complete QUESTIONABLE and an
swers follow
@. Is the three-year plan harmful
In any way to American investments
in Cuba?
A. The three-year plan is an index
of proposals, legislation and studies
which have as their aim the CO.
ordination and reorganization of
Cuba's industries, institutions, systems,
government agencies tribunals, etc,
having an agricultural economic or
social character.
To describe it adequately and to
explain the objectives at which it
aims and the compelling reasons lead
ing to its adoption, it is necessary
to remember that when the people
of Cuba rose in August. 1888, to
drive Machado from the country they
voiced an intense desire not only to
free themselves from a personal die
tatorship, but to remove the abuses
of political and social system which
Machado had come to symbolic.
Revolution was a word which, fol-
lowing Machado's overthrow, sum-
married the widespread demand for
sweeping reforms in economic, social
and political life"
Special" Labor Not Excluded.
Cuban laws now in effect for the
protection of Cuban workmen, and
the new measure proposed in the
three-year plan do not differ in their
philosophy in the logic supporting
them, or in their aims from the labor
laws of the United States and other
progressive countries. Indeed, the
fact is that Cuba has been tagging
far behind the United States in de-
Tending the interests of its native
labor. The same may be said, although
to a greater degree, about Cuban
capital, but I am glad to have this
opportunity to state that neither in
the discussions leading up to the prep
aration and publication of the plan,
nor in the text of the plan itself,
nor in the philosophy that inspires
it, is there anything to give cause for
fear or unjust discrimination against,
or the exclusion from Cuba, of the
special kind of American workman
who find employment in Cuba, and
the American and other foreign capi-
tai now invested in Cuba or to be
invested in the future.
Because of its natural wealth, the
industry of its people and its incom-
parable geographical location, Cuba
Is assured of an enviable status in
: the investment markets of the world
Despite the dislocations wrought by
the crisis, which did not have its
origin nor its provocation in Cuba,
and making exception, naturally, of
the period of the depression, which
ravaged other countries as we'll as
Cuba, hold that with the ending of
the period of readjustment Cuba is
again what it has been since the turn
of the century, namely, a great market
for the United States, a market which
today occupies fifth and seventh places
in the world imports and exports of
the United States, notwithstanding it's
small area of only $4,000 square miles
and a population of 100000.
Plan Called Conservative.
To any one who reads the three
year plan it will be apparent that
compared with other plans of Eu-
rope and America the Cuban one is
conservative and moderate. 1t con-
tains nothing to correspond with the
drastic provisions of other plans, so
frightening to capital; namely, the
conflscation or appropriation of the
property of individuals or corpora
tions. Cuba, of course, has that right
of sovereignty, like every other sover-
eign nation. But Cuba does not need
to exercise it now, nor will it in the
future, for counting on the co-opera-
tion and good will of nationals and
foreigners, it is able to follow a less
radical pathway to the objectives
which the well being and happiness
Of its people demand.
@. Has it caused fear among for
eign business representatives?
A. The best answer to that ques-