aration for emergencies
and therefore provided it with a small but efficient army and navy,
commensurate with the necessities of the country, and entirely subject,
of course, to the control and direction of the people through their
civil government. The efficiency of this arm of the Government was well
demonstrated at the time already described in these pages when, early in
1917, a widespread revolution was attempted for the purpose of
overthrowing the constitutional and legal government of the country. At
that time the President showed the same triumphant ability as a military
strategist that he had displayed as a civil administrator, in directing
the movements of the Government troops from the Palace in Havana. It was
due to his vigilance and energy in directing the campaign, as well, of
course, as to the able assistance of his staff, that the rebel forces
were promptly surrounded and captured and thus a death blow was struck
at what we may hope will prove to have been the last attempt at
revolution in Cuba.

No less remarkable than his energy in war was the President's
magnanimity in dealing with his vanquished enemies when peace had been
restored, though sometimes against the will of many of his foremost
advisers. He led the movement of opinion favorable to harmony and
reconciliation, which was finally confirmed by a law of congress
granting full amnesty to all civilians who participated in that ill
advised insurrection. Instead of using persecution, bitterness and
vindictive oppression against his enemies, President Menocal restored
good will through the Island by his magnanimous generosity and abundant
acts of grace.

We have already spoken of President Menocal's admirable course in
pointing out where the duty of his country lay in the great crisis of
the European war, and in confirming the traditional friendship between
Cuba and the United States by making the insular republic an ally of its
great northern neighbor in that world-wide conflict. His recommendation
of a declaration of war was immediately and unanimously adopted by the
Cuban Congress, and thereafter the policy of the republic, under his
direction, was one of close cooperation with the United States, and of
placing all the resources and energies of the Island at the disposal of
the Allied cause. It is worthy of record that the French Government
showed its appreciation, not only of his spirit and purpose but of his
actual achievements in the war, by