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Show CUBA DECLINES TO BEAR I DEBTS INCURRED 81 SPAIN I A Courteous But Positive Refusal ll Given to Proposal for Cuba to Assume As-sume a Portion of the Spanish Span-ish National Debt. Havana. Secretary of State Velez, in reply to Senor Soler. the Spanish minister, has declined to consider Spain's proposal that Cuba assume a portion of the Spanish national debt. This announcement was made at the close of what Senor Velez described as most amicable negotiations between be-tween himself and the Spanish minister minis-ter relative to Spain's desire that Cuba assume a proportion of the Spanish Span-ish debt. The secretary on Saturday gave out the following statement: "The Spanish minister to Cuba on May 27, 1909, addressed to the Cuban department of state a courtous note setting forth the desire of his government govern-ment to maintain the closest and most friendly relations with Cuba as becoming be-coming two countries so closely united by blood, tradition and mutual interest. inter-est. He said that he had been instructed in-structed to express the desire of Spain for a discussion of the matter of the debts contracted by Spain on account of Cuba when the latter was her colony. col-ony. Spain founded her contention on the principle that a country separated from another should be chargeable with a part of the debt of the country from which it had separated. "Having studied closely the antecedents antece-dents of this question, which public opinion in neither Spain nor Cuba suspected sus-pected of being still pending, Secretary Secre-tary Velez replied on June 19 to the note of the Spanish minister. Senor Velez declared that the acceptance of the Spanish view was incompatible with the provisions of the Cuban constitution, con-stitution, to which Spain consented in recognizing the republic. The secretary secre-tary had deoided, consequently, that his government was unable to enter into negotiations on the question of the Spanish colonial debt." |