Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/110

 Rh At the head of each province there shall be a deputation, elected in the manner provided by the colonial statutes and composed of a number of members in proportion to its population.

The provincial deputations shall be autonomous in everything relating to the creation and dotation of establishments of public instruction and charitable institutions, provincial means of communication by land, river, or sea, the preparation of their budgets, and the appointment and removal of their employees.

Both the municipal boards and provinces may freely provide for the receipts necessary to meet the expenditures of their budgets without any limitation other than that of making them harmonize with the general system of taxation of the island.

The means derived from the provincial budget shall be independent of those derived from the municipal budget.

The councilmen elected by the municipal districts shall be alcaldes and acting alcaldes.

The alcaldes shall perform the active duties of the municipal administration without any limitation whatever, as executors of the enactments of the municipal governments and as their representatives.

Both the councilmen and the provincial deputies shall be civilly responsible for any injuries that may be caused by their acts.

They may be held thus responsible before the ordinary courts.

The provisional deputations shall freely choose their presidents.

Elections for councilmen and provincial deputies shall be held in such a manner that the minorities may be legitimately represented therein.

The provincial and municipal law now in force in Cuba shall continue in force so far as it is not at variance with the provisions of this decree, until the colonial parliament shall decide concerning these matters.

No colonial statute shall deprive the municipal boards or the deputations of the powers recognized in the foregoing articles as belonging to them.

Any citizen may apply to the courts when he thinks that his rights have been violated or his interests injured by the enactments of a municipal board or of a provincial deputation.

The Government attorney, if he shall be requested to do so by the agents of the colonial executive power, shall likewise prosecute before the courts any infractions of law or abuses of power that may have been committed by the municipal governments and the deputations.

In the cases referred to in the foregoing article the following courts shall be competent:

For complaints against the municipal boards, the superior court of the territory.

For complaints against the provincial deputations, the superior court of Havana.

These courts, when they have to decide cases of abuses of power by the aforesaid bodies, shall decide in full court. Appeal may be taken from the decisions of the territorial courts to the superior court of Havana, and from the decisions of this latter court to the supreme court of the Kingdom.

The privileges granted in article 62 to any citizen may be exercised collectively by means of a public action, an attorney or representative being appointed for that purpose.

Without prejudice to the powers granted to him in Title V, the Governor-General, when he shall think proper, may have recourse, in his capacity as head of the colonial executive power, to the superior court of Havana, to the end that that court may decide conflicts of jurisdiction between the colonial executive power and the legislative chambers.

If any question of jurisdiction shall arise between the insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as representative of the Central Government, which, on petition of the former, shall not be submitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom, each of the two parties may submit it for decision to the supreme court of the Kingdom, which shall decide in full court and without appeal.

Decisions having reference to the cases provided for in the foregoing articles shall be published in the collection of colonial statutes, and shall form part of the laws of the island.

Any municipal enactment having for its object the contraction of municipal loans or debts, shall have no executive force unless it shall be approved by a majority of the residents, when a demand to this effect shall have been made by one-third of the members of the municipal board.

A special statute shall determine the amount of the loan, or of the debt which according to the number of residents of the municipal district shall be necessary, in order that the case may be referred to the vote of the residents.