Sect, iii CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES 391
possessions and Cuba by the Secretary of Agriculture, and also for a
tariff reduction of 25 per cent. United States producers were to have
the advantage of a processing tax, but this was not to exceed the rate
of reduction in the duty.
The promotion of trade between the United States and Cuba was
the main function of the Second Export-Import Bank of Washington,
D.C., which was created by executive order of President Roosevelt on
the 9th March, 1934, though this was not expressly stated in the
order itself.1 The scheme had already been discussed by Mr. Welles,
as the State Department official in charge of negotiations with Cuba,
with Dr. Joaquin Martinez Saenz, Secretary of the Cuban Treasury.
The first transaction carried out through the bank was a loan of
§4,000,000 for the purchase of sufficient silver for the issue of
$10,000,000 in Cuban currency. This agreement was arranged by
the United States Government partly in order to compensate the
silver-producing Western States which would be affected by the
sugar beet quota. Though the Cuban Government would make a
considerable profit on the coinage of the silver, it had been hoped that
a better loan might have been negotiated, in view of the state of the
public finances. On the 10th April the Mendieta Government declared
a moratorium on the sinking fund of all foreign loans until the annual
national revenues should again reach $60,000,000, which it was hoped
might be achieved in two years. A special inquiry was to be made
before any action was taken on the public works obligations.
The Cuban Government next approached the United States with a
request for the extradition, on charges of murder, embezzlement and
other crimes, of General Machado, who had been living in New York
since the previous autumn. The United States Government had never
before received a request for the extradition on such charges of the
former chief executive of any foreign Government. It was, however,
understood that General Machado might have recourse to the courts
of law in the United States, but that, if his appeals failed, he would
certainly be handed over to the Cuban Government. On the 25th
April, before the extradition petition had actually been presented
to the State Department, the Cuban Consulate in New York ob-
tained a warrant for the provisional arrest of General Machado,
who, however, succeeded in eluding the police. At the time of
writing his whereabouts had not yet been discovered.
Soon after coining into office President Mendieta had put an end
1 Text in The New York Times, 10th March, 1934. A similar bank had
already been established to finance trade between the United States and the
U.S.S.B.