Office of the Historian

File No. 837.51/312

The Minister in Cuba ( Gonzales) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]
Habana, June 5, 1918, 6 p.m.

Your cables April 9, 13, 20, and May 23, 6 p.m.1 Have just received from Secretary Foreign Affairs report from Secretary of Treasury of Cuba: Report “relative to data desired by Department of State at Washington in regard to budget for 1917–18 in connection with proposed budget for 1918–19 now before Congress.” The report follows:

The budget for the ensuing fiscal year is divided into four parts, namely:

Fixed or permanent charges; annual or ordinary expenses, including continuous and recurring charges arising from organic laws and from recognized and unavoidable needs; additional charges including works in course of execution which may be suspended or deferred; discretional charges for improvements needed in the public service or interest but which may be deferred, decreased, or abandoned altogether in the face of emergencies in the national life or of discrepancy between a revenue and expenditures; and lastly, a special section embracing all outstanding appropriations for works and services authorized for payment of surplus revenue not otherwise appropriated, and unforeseen or emergency expenses which may arise from the war.

The first three sections, that is to say, the fixed budget, the annual or ordinary budget, and the additional budget, are balanced by revenue authorized by the tax system of the State including the taxes authorized by the act of July 31, 1917; and the extraordinary budget is based on proceeds from issue of bonds and any surplus revenue which there may be.

Budget of Expenses—Fixed Budget

Judicial branch $2,420,844.26
Legislative branch 1,541,438.00
National debt 6,044,210.00
Total $10,006,492.26

Annual Budget

Department of Agriculture $1,402,280.00
Department of State 1,263,660.13
Department of Justice. 267,360.00
Executive Power 209,620.00
Department of Public Instruction 9,256,410.00
Department of Public Works 6,846,340.00
Department of Sanitation 5,994,526.86
Department of Government 6,071,071.26
Department of War and Marine 8,896,983.83
Treasury Department 4,029,068.25
Total 2 $44. 287.820.59

Additional Budget

Department of Government $204,675.00
Department of War and Marine 6,202,187.13
Treasury Department 563,204.00
Grand Total 2 $61,263,204.00
Grand Total 2 $61,213,878.98
[Page 331]

Revenue having been estimated in the sum of $62,760,000 and expenses in the sum of $61,213,878.98, the estimated surplus is $1,546,121.02. This surplus will be held as an offset to claims pending adjustment and settlement for funds seized and appropriated by revolutionists from the several public treasuries.

Extraordinary Budget

Public Instruction $825,000
Public Works 8,802,606
Sanitation 109,684
Total 1 $9,737,291

Comparing the budget for the present fiscal year with the proposed budget for the ensuing fiscal year, the latter shows an increase of $17,060,677.32 distributed over the sections enumerated, there being included in the $6,044,210 apportioned to the amortization and payment of interest on the public debt, the sum of $1,800,000 for interest on the bonds of the $30,000,000 loan authorized by the law of July 31, 1917, which bonds are not yet on the market but may be sold in the course of the year.

The reason for increasing the public expenditures during the ensuing fiscal year is explained along general lines in the preamble to the budget for the fiscal year 1918–19, and in more detail in the estimates of each Department comprised in the budget.

The report is signed by Secretary Cancio.

Gonzales
  1. Cable of May 23 not printed.↩
  2. There is a slight discrepancy in the above totals, due undoubtedly to error in transmission.↩
  3. There is a slight discrepancy in the above totals, due undoubtedly to error in transmission.↩
  4. There is a slight discrepancy in the above totals, due undoubtedly to error in transmission.↩
  5. There is a slight discrepancy in the above total, due undoubtedly to error in transmission.↩