CUBA AND AMERICA

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2062, 24 April 1907, Page 4

CUBA AND AMERICA

According to a leading Americau paper, there is a strong probability that the rich island of Cuba, now for the second time under American government, will become a permanent possession of the United States within the next twelve months. This is dcpitc the fact that new elections are to take place at the beginning ol June for an independent and fully equipped Government, managed by Cubans alone, and that Presidoirt Koosevelt has personally pledged -Ifunself to see that so soon as it is firmlv established the United States will withdraw from the island as completely as it did after the war with Spain. Since that war Cuba has been a source of considerable trouble to tlie States, and it might he thought that the inability of the Cuban people to maintain a settled Government of their own had been sufficiently proved. Every opportunity will now lie given them, it is said, to demonstrate the contrary, hut members of Congress and others who know most about the affairs of Cuba are stated to have little confidence that the experiment will prove successful. The elections for the new Governinent will be supervised by the United States to ensure that they are fairly conducted, and that everyone shall have a chance to register liis vote. Then, when a Cuba Government is formed, which should be possible by the first days of July, the American troops will he wthdrawn, and the island left to its own devices. But. should foreign trouble or internal bloodshed bo precipitated liy the. new Cuban powers, it will be considered that sufficient justification lias been afforded for the country’s unconditional annexation, once for all. With the violent animosities between partes that exist in Cuba, it is thought that the necessity for this step will in all probability very soon arise. A largo number of the Cubans themselves, it is said, would weloome permanent American government for the peace and development of industries which it would bring. The possible limits of that development are not easy to foresee. The island is enormously rich to-day, and plight he made much more so under a stable Government. Iron of extraordinary quality and in enormous quail titles lias been discovered lately, and scarcely a fifth part of the arable land is now under cultivation.