Evening star., 1938-11-20

COL Batista greeted here by
State.
1870 collected during the same period cf
1887. The government arranged with the
Havana Clearing House banks for an
advance secured by Cuban treasury
current budgetary needs.
In view of the appreciable decline in
revenues, the government Is considering
a reduction in the budget for the 1889
fiscal year."
This bleak picture is thrown on the
screen after several years of relative
prosperity. Foreign trade of Cuba in
1886 was twice the trade in 1882. The
island was helped by the change of gov
ernment, by the American trade agree
ment, by American loans from the Sec
ond Import-Export Bank for silver
coinage. by the Roosevelt abrogation Of
the Platt amendment. bringing an end
to the threat of United States interven-
ton in Cuban affairs.
Whether the island was helped by the
Roosevelt sugar policy is another ques-
ton. Cuba is the worlds second sugar
producer, and the United States is her
first sugar customer. Considering the
American sugar grower, reflner and con-
sumer, the Agriculture Department and
Congress produced the sugar quota plan.
which reduces the freedom of Cuba's
sugar market in this country.
Wants Banking Control.
Batista would like some relief from the
present sugar policy. More, he would
like American aid in establishing CEN
trail governmental bank of issue which
would give the Cuban government great
er control over its own finances than
can be true at the present, when banking
is largely in the hands of the Royal
Bank of Canada, the National City Bank
of New York, the Chase National Bank
of New York. the Bank of Nova Scotia
and the Banco del Commerce.
The problem of central governmental
bank was recently solved for Brazil.
which suffered long from the lack of
such an institution, by United States
help. And Cuban currency is much
closer akin to this countrys than Brazil
ian currency is. For instance, the law of
November T. 1914, fixed the monetary
unit as gold peso of 1918 grams equal
to the United States dollar Following
the devaluation of the dollar to 59O6
per cent Of its former value, Cuba, in
May 1884, reduced the peso by similar
percentage so that it weighed O9873 of
a gram.
Cuba's bleak period comes at a par
ticularly inopportune moment for Ba-
tista, just year after he proclaimed his
"three-year plan"-which some of his
critics now are calling the "30O-year
plan This plan was sort of New Deal
for Cuba, promising great social and
economic improvements in the lot of
the people, satisfying needs "of so urgent
nature" as the Cuban Embassy here
stated at the time of the plans promul-
cation, that it is difficult to understand
why nothing has been done about them
before this"
Land Policies Watched.
The plan now is little more than
plan. But implicit in it is the likelihood
OF appropriation of foreign lands. The
United States would be very unwilling
to precipitate with Cuba the sort of
agrarian problem it has just come to
agreement on with Mexico after long
and strained dispute. Cuba needs money
to put the plan over. AS the Cuban
Embassy statement on the plan re-
marked:
The realistic nature of the three-year
plan is to be seen in those parts which
deal with money and finance.
There are measuring rods which indi-
cate the degree of prosperity of peo-
pie, their capabilities, their happiness.
One of these gauges, perhaps the most
important, is wealth, expressed in statis-
tics of production, of the balance of
trade, of investments, factories, capital
Measured by such gauge, Cuba is a
rich nation. Nevertheless, rich though
Cuba is, it is still far from attaining its
proper rank among the rich nations of
the world. The reason is, largely, the
lack up to now of a monetary and finan-
cial system that is truly Cuban"
Cuba hopes for not only direct aid
from the United States at this trying
time for her, but indirect assistance
Both republics will be represented at
Lima Peru, next month at the eighth
International Conference Of American
States There Cuba will present reso-
luton which will state, in part, this:
THE American continent, removed
from the political strife of the world
and occupying a neutral position which
isolates it from the passions that to-
day divide states, is In favorable moral