(TRANSLATION.)

CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE ISLANDS OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO, PROMULGATED BY ROYAL DECREE OF NO

VEMBER 25, 1897.

DIVISION OF CUSTOMS AND INSULAR AFFAIRS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

AUGUST, 1899.

NEW CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE ISLANDS OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

PREAMBLE.

MADAM: In approaching the important problem of the introduction of colonial autonomy into the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, a task which, together with that of the pacification of the island of Cuba, constitutes the obligations which the Government has contracted toward the nation, the ministers are of opinion that detailed explanations and comments on the complex matters which the project embraces should give place to a sober but complete exposition of its fundamental characteristics, of the spheres of action to which it extends, and of the consequences which, in their judgment, the system which they propose to Your Majesty for the government of the Spanish Antilles will produce.

Criticism and analysis will very soon elucidate what refers to the details of this system; the essential principles and the spirit of the decree are all that can properly be set forth here and at this time.

To do this is the more necessary, since the first and most essential condition of success in this class of reforms is absolute sincerity of purpose. With sincerity the Government has proceeded to consider the best form of autonomic constitution for the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico; and that the results have not fallen short of its intention it hopes to give in these observations complete proof.

The Government proposed to itself to state the principle clearly, to unfold it in all its integrity, and to surround it with all the guaranties necessary to its success. For when it is proposed to intrust the direction of their affairs to peoples that have attained their majority, either autonomy should not be offered to them at all, or it should be given to them complete, in the conviction that they are thus put on the path to prosperity, unhampered by restrictions or impediments springing from mistrust or suspicion. Either the defense of the nation's integrity is to be delivered to repression and force, or it is to be intrusted to the union of common affections and traditions with common interests, a union that will be strengthened in proportion as it is developed by the advantages of this system of government, advantages which shall prove clearly to the colonies that under no other system would it be possible for them to attain a greater degree of prosperity, security, and importance.

This being established, it was an essential condition to the attainment of the desired end to seek a form for this principle which should be practical and intelligible to the people to be governed by it; and

this form the Government found in the programme of that insular party, considerable from its numbers, but more important still from its intelligence and its constancy, whose aspirations for twenty years past have familiarized the Cuban people with the spirit, the methods, and the vast importance of the profound innovation which they are now called upon to introduce into their political and social life.

With which it is plainly proved that the project is in no way theoretical, nor is it an imitation or copy of other colonial constitutions, regarded justly as models of their kind, for although the Government has kept well in mind their teachings, it comprehends that the institutions of peoples who in their history and their race differ so greatly from the Cuban people could not take root where they have neither precedent nor conditions favorable to their development, and where the preparation born of education and beliefs does not exist.

The problem being thus stated, and the question being to give an autonomic constitution to a Spanish territory, peopled by the Spanish race and civilized by Spain, the solution was not doubtful. Autonomy must be developed within the lines of and in accordance with the programme which bears that name in the Antilles, without eliminating any of its substantial bases, and, above all, without altering its spirit, completing it and harmonizing it rather by giving it greater guaranties of stability, as behooves the government of a metropolis which feels impelled to implant it from a conviction of its advantages, from the desire to carry peace and tranquillity to such valued territories, and from the consciousness of its responsibilities, not only to its colony, but also to its own vast interests, interwoven so closely in the course of years with hers.

Thus assured of the form which best corresponded with its purpose, it was not difficult to discern the three important aspects which the implanting of an autonomic constitution presents. In the first place, the sacred interests of the mother country, who, alarmed and rendered distrustful by the conduct of many of her children, and wounded by the ingratitude of those who have more confidence in the selfishness of the political adventurer than in the affection of the brother, she desires, above all things, that the approaching change shall strengthen and confirm the sovereignty, and that in the midst of a blessed peace the interests of all her children which are not opposed to, nor in contradiction with, although they may at times be distinct from, one another, shall be brought into harmony, made coexistent, and developed with the free concurrence of all.

In the second place, the aspirations, the needs, the desires of colonies anxious to be treated as unfortunate children, instead of being destroyed like enemies, responsive to the call of affection, but, as Spaniards, rebellious to the brutal imposition of exterminating force, which expect from the mother country a form that shall mold their initiatives, and a system which shall authorize them to govern their interests.

And, finally, that vast and interesting aggregation of the relations created, the interests developed in the long past, which no one, and especially no government, may justly disclaim or neglect, and whose maintenance and development involve the realization of the destiny of our race in America and the glory of the Spanish flag in the lands discovered and civilized by our ancestors.

To these three orders of ideas correspond the fundamental provisions of the project submitted to the approval of Your Majesty. To the first-that is, to the metropolitan aspect-belong the question of sovereignty, intrusted to the highest bodies of the Spanish nation. The power and authority of the King, who is the nation itself; the command of the naval and military forces; the administration of justice; diplomatic intercourse with America; the constant and beneficial relations between the colony and the mother country; the power of pardon; the guarding and defense of the constitution are intrusted to the Governor-General, as the representative of the King, and under the direction of the council of ministers. Nothing of what is essential has been forgotten, and in no degree is the authority of the central power diminished or lessened.

The insular aspect reveals itself, in its turn, in as complete and perfect a manner as the most exacting could require in central, provincial, and municipal autonomy; in the application, without reserve, ambiguity, or double meaning, of the parliamentary system; in the powers of the insular chambers, and in the creation of a responsible government, at whose head, and forming the supreme bond of nationality in what refers to the executive power, the Governor-General appears anew, presiding, on the one hand, through responsible ministers, over the development of the life of the colony, and on the other, binding this to and bringing it into relation with the general life of the nation.

And the third aspect, which embraces all that refers to the relations between the Antilles and the metropolis, and in which must also be developed their commerce, their credit, and their wealth, is defined in a series of provisions of a permanent character, which unite the two executive powers, the insular and the national, and on certain occasions their chambers, so that at all times and in the varying cares of life they may mutually support and aid each other in the development of their common interests.

And all this multiple and complex, although not complicated system is legalized and made practicable by a series of guaranties, of bonds, of constant interchange of ideas, and of public discussions, which will render impossible, so far as human knowledge can foresee, dilemmas without escape, irreconcilable differences or collisions between the colony and the mother country.

This last is a point of such importance that the Government would in any case have subordinated to it every other question, had this been necessary; but it was not, nor could it be necessary, since the basis of the new system rests upon the harmony of interests of the two countries, a scrupulous respect of mutual rights, and the desire on the part of the mother country to aid unceasingly in the development, prosperity, and peaceful progress of her beautiful Antilles, a desire which the Government does not doubt will find in them a loyal response.

This does not mean that questions may not present themselves in which the two spheres of action will be confounded, and legitimate doubts arise as to which is the preponderating interest in them; and, following the doubt, more or less heated discussion. In no selfgoverning colony has this failed to occur; in none has it been the case that the central power always and systematically approves the acts of the colonial power. The list is long of the legislative resolutions of