CUBAN DEFAULT

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1933, Page 5

CUBAN DEFAULT

AMERICAN DEBT .REPUDIATED

ECONOMIC POSITION VERY BAD

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph—Copyright).

HAVANA, December 27. The longanticipated default in CvTa’s enormous external debt appeared imminent to-day as the,(Secretary to the Treasury announced unofficially that the- 3,9C0,000-- dollars owed to American bondholders on Monday would not he paid. The money will berised for, back pay owed to (Government- workers, It is contended that such contracts madefy the dormer President Machado were illegal, It was 'intimated - that - Provisional , President Gran Martin will soon proclaim an official moratorium of jnterest service charges due, to include •/he forty million dollars public works bonds and twenty million short-term notes, both floated through the Chase National Bank, New York- . Meanwhile, the international economic condition is becoming increasingly worse. Continued Labour agitation and Government confiscation of many sugar mills have brought the Island’s chief industry to .a virtual standstill. A hundred thousand sugar workers are said to he, in danger of starvation unless the industry is revived. An anti-American spirit is intensifying, with the boycott of American goods declared in several cities, in retaliation for nonrecognition policy.