Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — The Queen of the Antilles. [ARTICLE]

The Queen of the Antilles.

[New York telegram.] A meeting of Cubans was held in the University Club theater to-night to discuss the project of annexing the Island of Cuba to the United States. Mr. Bubiera, who is foremost in the movement, said the Spanish property-owners on the island know that Cuba can not remain long under the control of Spain, and they know, or think at all events, that if Cuba were annexed to the United States their property would double in value. So they have on foot a movement to bring about that end. Last July, Mr. Bubiera says, a secret meeting was held of Spanish representatives from each of the forty-four districts in Cuba. These gentlemen assembled quietly at Saratoga, and there met those prominent American bankers from New York who are interested in the enterprise, and discussed the best means of bringing the matter favorably before Congress. The result was that a committee was sent to Newport to meet and confer with ex-President Arthur with the view to securing his services as legal adviser in the enterprise. The native Cubans are not in sympathy with the plan. They say that first of all must come Independence from Spain, and then if the matter is put before the Cuban people for a vote and the decision is favorable there will be ample time to consider a basis of annexation to the American Union. Mr. Bubiera read extracts from a Cuban letter written to a Madrid paper in which the writer said that the people of Spain would be much surprised were they to hear the names of the wealthy and distinguished Spanish residents of Cuba who were interesting themselves actively in this plan of annexation to the United States. Their idea was to approach the American Congress with such terms as would tempt this Government to enter into negotiations for the purchase outright of the island.