Minister Squiers to
the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Habana,
Cuba, April 15,
1905.
No. 1227.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a
translation of the President’s message of April 3, 1905, on the
assembling of the seventh session of the legislative bodies.
* * * * * * *
Under foreign relations the President states that Cuba has become a party
to the conventions and agreements concerning the international registry
of trade-marks and the repression of false entries of origin of
merchandise, exchanged ratifications of a treaty of friendship,
commerce, and navigation with Italy and treaties of extradition of
criminals with Great Britain and the United States, and expect soon a
similar treaty with Belgium.
* * * * * * *
To the United States under the head of commerce will be found the most
important item of interest. It is here shown that Cuba’s total trade has
increased some $27,256,000 during the past year. Of this $13,617,000
were imports. The increase in the import trade with the United States
was $7,039,000; with Great Britain, $1,884,000; with Germany,
$1,100,000; with Spain, $594,000; with France, $852,000. To show how
favorable the reciprocity treaty has been to the United States, Mr.
Palma states that comparing 1903 with 1904 our trade has increased just
2 per cent.
* * * * * * *
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Extracts from the President’s Message of April
3, 1905.
To Congress:
The seventh legislative session of the National Congress begins
to-day, and in compliance with article 68 of the constitution I
address this message to both colegislative bodies.
* * * * * * *
foreign relations.
On January 11 last Señor Manuel Alvarez Calderon presented his
credentials as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
Peru. On our part, diplomatic relations have been initiated with the
Republic of Haiti, accrediting Señor Jorge A. Campuzano as chargé
[Page 286]
d’affaires before the
government of that Republic; and as soon as the Senate approves the
appointment of Señor Emilio Ferrer y Picabia for the post of
minister plenipotentiary in France and Italy, our legation in Rome
shall have been established, thus responding to the honor with which
long since the Italian Government distinguished us.
Elementary duties of international courtesy impel me to reiterate the
indication made in previous messages with respect to the
advisability of sending a special mission to the Central and South
American countries for the purpose of establishing friendly
relations with those sister nations and strengthening the currents
of sympathy with which they ever distinguished us, it being
possible, besides, to concert commercial treaties which shall tend
to favor certain of our national industries.
* * * * * * *
With the previous approval of the Senate, Cuba has become a party to
the conventions and agreements concerning the international registry
of trade-marks and the repression of false indications of origin of
merchandise. Such conventions and agreements are the complement of
the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property,
to which we had already become a party. Ratifications have been
exchanged of the treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation with
Italy, and the treaties of extradition of criminals with Great
Britain and with the United States, and ratifications should be
exchanged within a short time of a similar treaty negotiated with
Belgium.
The Senate of the United States closed its sessions in the last
Congress without having approved the treaty recognizing our
sovereignty over the Isle of Pines. Nevertheless, knowing, as we all
know in Cuba, the essentially moral character of the American people
and the noble disinterestedness, unexemplified in the world’s
history, with which they lent us aid that we might become an
independent nation, there is no reason to doubt that, during the
next Congress, that august body, inspired as it ever is with an
upright spirit of justice, shall approve the treaty, thus responding
to the honorable purposes of the illustrious citizen who to-day
exercises the first magistracy of the great Republic.
Cuba has been invited to participate in several fairs and congresses,
for example, the Railway Congress, to be held in Washington in the
month of May next year; the Congress of Commercial Bodies and
Commercial and Industrial Associations of Belgium; the Congress of
Navigation, to be held in Milan next year.
For the purpose of stimulating the immigration of laborers from
Spain, instructions were given to our consular agents there to
disseminate, principally in the rural districts, the advantages open
in Cuba to the honest laborer through the good treatment which he
receives and the high wages which he is paid, which permits him to
abundantly provide for his necessities and accumulate some savings.
Those functionaries are effectively complying with the instructions
transmitted.
The consulate of the Republic in Liverpool has begun the installation
of a commercial museum, where Cuban exhibitors, in addition to
adequately exhibiting their goods, may obtain information and
references conducive to the better placing of Cuban products.
I beg to call attention to the allusion made in my messages of April
and November last year, relative to the Brussels Sugar Convention,
and to the indication which I made in that of March 2 last as to the
advisability of authorizing the President to modify paragraphs 293
and 294 of the tariff, by means of which the English market would be
opened to our sugars, whether we become a party of the said
convention or not.
* * * * * * *
