CUBA: Pr

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Why should President Carlos Prío Socarrás have to borrow $100 million in the U.S. when there was plenty of money in Cuba? It was a question his enemies were bound to ask as soon as they heard about his proposed First Boston Corp. 3⅞% loan for public works (TIME, Aug. 15).

Carlos Prío had an answer. After he had held a two-hour conference with 15 Cuban bankers, his palace publicity office handed out a mimeographed statement signed by the bankers. "We want to contribute to the economic development of Cuba through mobilization of her own resources," it said. The bankers' proposal: a $35 million loan, at higher interest (4%) and with fewer incidental services than First Boston had promised.

Cubans quickly saw that the bankers had made Prío's point for him. Nobody could seriously argue any longer that an ambitious public-works program could be financed as well in the Cuban money market as in the U.S.