Rooster, Bomb, Sugar

"I am not going to resign, Senores," said big, flabby-jowled President Gerardo Machado y Morales firmly to Havana newshawks last week. "In fact you can quote me as saying that I expect to remain President of Cuba until May 20, 1935 at 11:59 a.m."

Fearfully Cubans wondered if these words ended the recent truce between Boss Machado ("The Rooster") and that equally cocky Cuban, Dr. Carlos de la Torriente, Leader of the Opposition. Since early December dickering had gone on, the Opposition demanding that the President resign; and since early December there had been no bomb outrage in Havana.

On the night after Senor Machado announced that he did not choose to resign, normalcy returned. At precisely 1:30 a. m. a bomb exploded at the front door of a minor Machado henchman, Col. Jose Quero, Chief of the Tax Section of the Cuban Treasury. Nobody was hurt, as usual. The bomb merely blew in Col. Quero's front door, blew his library furniture into a pile of kindling wood, blew out most of the windows in his house. Just a reminder.

Immeasurably more serious was a rebuff by Dutchmen to Cubans next day in Paris, where the International Sugar Council is still vainly trying to enforce the Chadbourne plan of world wide restriction by leading sugar growers (TIME, May 18 et ante). Cuba has loyally cooperated; President Machado has thrown all his dictatorial power behind the plan. Last week the Dutch growers contended that a technicality in the Chadbourne agreement exempts "present crops" from limitation, and contended that since their crop contracts are made 14 months in advance, limitation of the Java crop would not begin until the spring harvest of 1933. Cubans, who contend that even current standing crops are pledged to be left standing to rot in the fields, protested quietly and firmly last week, until the International Sugar Council adjourned for Christmas.

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