PORTO RICO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2499, 12 May 1909, Page 5

PORTO RICO.

A GRAVE POLITICAL SITUATION.

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT TAFT

United Press Association—Copyright (Received May 11, 11.20 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, May 11

President Taft, in a message to Congress, states that a grave situation has arisen in Porto Rico, owing to the failure of the Porto Rican Assembly' to pass the Appropriation Bills. President Taft says that Porto Rico is evidently incapable of self-government, and that .political power has been extended too soon. He recommends the compulsory appropriation of the necessary funds.

[Porto Rico was, until 1898, a. Spanish colony, but was then ceded, to tho United States by the Spanish-American treaty of peace, and lies to the east of San Domingo, in the West Indies. It is administered by a Governor with an Executive Council, consisting of six officials and five natives appointed by the' President, and a Legislative Assembly of 35 members elected for two years on, a franchise restricted by a small property qualification and a law educational test. The island of Culebra, between .Porto Rico and St. Thomas, has been made a United States naval base. The island is mountainous, the climate healthy, and the chief exports are coffee, fruit, sugar, tobacco, and timber. Free' trade 'between the island .and the United States was inaugurated in July 1907 with very beneficial results on the sugar and tobacco trades. The United ‘States send the great bulk of the imports and take most of the exports. There are 200 miles of railway. Area, 3430 square miles, and population 1,000,000, of whom about 60,000 are negroes, about 300,000 mulattoes, and .about-590,000 whites, Tire chief towns are: San Juan, population 32,048; Ponce, 27,952. Imports 1904-5, £3,418,534; 1905-06, £4,427,278; 19067. ;, £5,857,714. Exports, .1904-5, £3,726,968; 1905-6, £4,749,120 ;1906-7, £5,550,756.] - - -