Appendix

Secretary of State Stimson last week found his desk strewn with vexatious matters appertaining to that troublesome, vermiform little neighbor, Cuba. As President Hoover's foreign minister, Statesman Stimson had to keep abreast of Cuba's internal disorders, of which several were stirring last week. Complaints centred chiefly about President Gerardo Machado.

President Coolidge paid a magnificent visit to President Machado in January, 1928, when he journeyed in state to Havana to open the Pan-American Conference. Generous and flattering were President Machado's attentions to President Coolidge. They became indeed the "great and good friends" of diplomatic parlance. Mr. Coolidge returned to Washington full of admiration and praise for Cuba and its president. Secretary of State Kellogg took his cue from the White House and anti-Machado agitators kept well under cover.

Herbert Hoover, as President-Elect skipped Cuba on his Latin-American tour this year. Significant or not, this omission was sufficient to bring out of the shadows all the anti-Machado agitators in the U. S. and to guide their footsteps to Secretary Stimson's door with requests that "something be done."

For all its formal show of sovereign independence, Cuba remains a U. S. appendix, attached not only by trade and finance but semi-politically by the Platt Amendment. Said this provision (tacked on to the 1901 Army Appropriation Bill and never since retracted): "The government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the protection of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property and individual liberty. ..." It was under this authority that the U. S. Army occupied Cuba from 1906 to 1909 to suppress uprisings and restore constitutional government. On the theory that Cuban sovereignty can be suspended at will by the U. S. under the Platt Amendment, Secretary Stimson is being implored by anti-Machadoists to see the "unconstitutional" character of that president's regime, the suppression of "individual liberty." the lack of protection for "property."

On this score Secretary Stimson last week had these things to consider:

Barlow. After the Spanish War, U. S. Citizen Joseph E. Barlow settled in Havana. He dreamed it might one day be a fashionable winter resort. He helped develop the Marianao residential district, laying water mains on the Cuban Government's promise of reimbursement. He now claims that $122,000 is still owing on this account, that the Cuban Congress has appropriated the money, that President Machado has refused to pay him.

Citizen Barlow also bought some 32 city blocks of swamp land, known as the Manglar property, which later developed into the very heart of Havana. Some ten years ago this property was taken from him without compensation by the Government. Upon it, later, was installed an amusement company in which President Machado's son-in-law has an interest. Citizen Barlow values the land at $8,000,000, says he is losing $100,000 per year in rents alone. In 1924, with many a Cuban court decision to support him, Citizen Barlow took his troubles to the U. S. State Department. He later wrangled with Secretary Kellogg about his claims. Mr. Kellogg, fearing physical violence, secured a special bodyguard to protect himself from Citizen Barlow's ire. Tireless, Citizen Barlow carried his case to the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. That committee agreed informally that Cuba owed him a substantial sum. Citizen Barlow, now old and penniless, has been a year's free guest at a Washington hotel, ready to lead any movement against President Machado. Last week, Senator Borah, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, called upon Secretary Stimson, requested him to press the Barlow claim. Mr. Stimson, temporarily confused, told the press that the U. S. Embassy at Havana had been telegraphically instructed to expedite the Barlow claim. Next day he explained that he had been mixed on names, that it was the embassy at Berlin that had received instructions to press charges against Vladimir Orloff, forger of documents purporting to show that Senator Borah had been offered bribes by the Mexicans. The Barlow claim, said Statesman Stimson, was still being "studied" by the department.

Smith. Captain Walter Fletcher Smith, U. S. Citizen, fought to free Cuba. Long was he a leading figure in Havana's foreign colony. He had a fine home adjoining the Havana Yacht Club. One day in 1919 he was ordered out of it and before his eyes it was torn down by order of the Cuban Government on the pretext that his land was to be used for a public park. Soon thereafter the Government leased the site to Manhattan Hotelman John McEntee Bowman who used it as an entrance to a bathing beach.

Captain Smith won damages in Cuban courts, only to have President Machado refuse to honor his claims. The U. S. put the matter under arbitration. President Machado, reluctant, at first refused to post a $150,000 bond to show his good faith, and later attempted to value the property at $16,000, though the new operators were demanding from, him a protecting bond of $750,000. Manhattan Lawyer George Gordon Battle represented Capt. Smith; Chicago Lawyer Silas Hardy Strawn took President Machado's side in the arbitration. When he called on Secretary Stimson last week, Senator Borah urged that the U. S. take a firmer hand in this case also, on Citizen Smith's side.

Itturalde. Carefully timing his arrival, Dr. Rafael Itturalde, President Machado's onetime War Minister, frankly and boldly appeared upon the Washington scene last week to urge the U. S. to recognize the "unconstitutionality" of the Machado administration and to take steps under the Platt Amendment to rectify conditions in Cuba, which, he said, is "more steeped in intrigue, graft and absolute tyranny than any time since the days of Spanish domination."

Tariff. At the bottom of most things Cuban is sugar. Statesman Stimson went last week before the Republican members of the House Ways & Means Committee, now writing a new tariff bill, to plead for continued free-entry of Filipino sugar. While he was there he flayed Cuban sugar interests.