File No. 837.6112.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Habana, July 5, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to report that by Executive Decree No. 556, dated June 18 and published in the Gaceta Oficial of June 21, 1912, the President has granted, under the doubtful authority of Arts. 62 and 63 and minor provisions of the Law of Waters (Royal-Decree of January 13, 1891), a concession to a company called the “Compañía Agricultora de Zapata”, for the reclamation of the Ciénaga de Zapata, a swamp on the south coast of Cuba west of Cienfuegos containing approximately one thousand square miles. * * *
The project, which presumably contains plans and specifications of the proposed reclamation work and from which alone any idea as to the nature or extent of this work could be had, is not published.
The Ciénaga de Zapata largely consists of public lands, but there are many considerable tracts privately owned. It contains vast quantities of valuable timber and mangrove, and is Cuba’s principal source of charcoal, the universal cooking fuel; these natural resources give it its principal if not its only value. Extensive charcoal operations have been going on there for many years, on privately owned as well as upon public lands under Government permits, which I understand afford a not inconsiderable source of public revenue.
The project of reclamation is merely a specious pretext for giving away incalculable millions in timber and charcoal woods. The project, if honestly undertaken for the reclamation of the land for agricultural purposes, would perhaps cost many millions of dollars, and it is very doubtful whether it would ever pay as a private enterprise. The company has eight years within which to finish its reclamation work, and there is apparently no obligation as to what part or how much of it shall be done in the intervening years; and in that time the company could perhaps cut millions of dollars worth of wood, and then, without ulterior responsibility, throw up the reclamation enterprise as impracticable.
There has been a strong outburst of public opinion against the concession. Among the affected landowners is General Enrique Loynaz del Castillo, who in his characteristic style has addressed an open letter to Congress bitterly denouncing the transaction as the most scandalous yet attempted in the “Republic of Pillage”. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to investigate the transaction, and it is likely that affected private landowners will, if not bought off, fight the concession in the courts, for the quoted [Page 310] provisions of law1 relating to insalubrious lands under which the concession is made clearly contemplate low lands and swamps in inhabited regions where they are a menace to public health, while this vast swamp has barely a handful of inhabitants who are engaged in exploiting its natural resources and it has never been regarded as a menace to the health of the distant settlements any more than are the rice fields and salt marshes of our own South Atlantic and Gulf States.
The concluding article of the decree of concession provides that—
Within thirty days from the date of publication in the Gaceta Oficial, the concessionaire shall notify the Department of Public Works of the concessionaire’s conformity with the provisions of this decree; whereupon that Department shall proceed to execute the appropriate instrument or act of concession. * * *
Until the execution of the instrument prescribed in the quoted provision, the concession does not become effective; and therefore there is still sufficient time in which to procure the suspension or revocation of the concession. Public opinion here is negligible, and only those people who have something at stake (who may be bought off in the meantime) will pay any attention to the matter after the first excitement subsides and the newspapers, appropriately “silenced”, cease their attacks. It is not likely that anything will come of the Congressional investigation, even if the motion calling for it is carried.
Therefore the only apparent way to stop this * * * is for us to enter without delay an emphatic protest that will leave no doubt as to our disauthorization of the measure; unofficial representations of a lukewarm character demanding no specific action might be disregarded.* * * Various promoters have, I understand, for many years sought this concession, former petitions having been summarily dismissed by the Wood, Palma and Magoon administrations, and now that the present promoters have it almost in their grasp a determined stand is necessary in order to dislodge them.
Our objections might appropriately be predicated upon the general principle of our interest in the finances of Cuba as affected by the alienation of natural resources for inadequate consideration, and upon Article V of the Platt Amendment regarding sanitary plans. If in the exercise of our rights under Art. V we insisted upon a thorough and comprehensive reclamation of the land with rigid stipulations as to the amount of work to be done each year—reducing the exploitation of natural resources to an incidental opportunity, rather than as it now is, the main object of the concession—the project would, I am convinced, inevitably fall through.
Our objections, if any, should be embodied in a note to President Gómez, and in order to be timely should be presented as soon as possible. I therefore respectfully recommend that I be instructed by telegraph.
I have [etc.]
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