Chargé Sleeper to
the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Habana, February 6,
1906.
No. 1465.]
Sir: In continuation of my dispatch No. 1438 of
the 13th ultimo, and in reply to department’s instructions No. 580 of
January 20, 1906, regarding the early compliance of Cuba with her treaty
engagements in the matter of the sanitation of the cities of the island,
I have the honor to inclose to the department translation of Mr.
O’Farrill’s reply to the representations I made at the foreign office
pursuant to the department’s aforesaid instructions.
I asked Mr. O’Farrill to bring this matter to the particular attention of
the President and have been assured by him that the inclosed note
embodies Mr. Palma’s views as well as his own.
In the instance of Habana, where the need is most urgent and the work
will be first taken up, Secretary O’Farrill makes the statement that the
municipality is unable to contract a loan sufficiently large to cover
the expense of sewering and paving and for that reason the necessary
amount is to be jointly provided by the Government and municipality. Mr.
O’Farrill believes that the work will not only be begun but considerably
advanced within the present year.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Secretary of the State
and Justice of the Republic of Cuba to Chargé
Sleeper.
Department of State and Justice,
Division of
State,
Habana, February 3,
1906.
No. 87.]
Mr. Chargé d’affaires: I have received your
polite note of January 26 last, in which your honor refers to the
reply I had the honor to make to you on the 10th of the said month
regarding Cuba’s compliance with her engagements in the matter of
the sanitation of various of her cities. You say that your
Government considers my reply unsatisfactory since but little
assurance is given of an early compliance with the treaty
engagements.
I reaffirm the expression of my previous notes in which I endeavored
to set forth with greatest clearness the desire of the Cuban
Government to give an early compliance with the engagements to which
your honor alludes in the note which I am answering.
The most important work is the sewering and paving of the city of
Habana, which the Government, after consideration, has decided
should be done with the Republic’s own resources and without
recource to a loan, always ruinous, and which could not be
contracted for by the municipality of Habana to the necessary amount
for the execution of a work so important as that mentioned.
In place of a loan, impossible under the present conditions of the
treasury of the capital of the Republic, the Government proposes
that the necessary amount
[Page 509]
to pay for the work which can be done each year be made part of the
national and municipal budgets. To do this Congress will have to be
relied upon and a respectable majority is expected in the Congress
which will meet next April.
I can assure your honor that the work of the sanitation of the cities
referred to in the engagement made by Cuba, particularly the
sewering and paving of Habana, will be begun and will have made
considerable progress during the present year.
Meanwhile the Government will give particular attention to public
health. The success it has had with the present sanitary measures in
keeping it in the best condition is undeniable.
I reiterate, etc.,
(Signed)
Juan F.
O’Farrill.
