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He was always in contact with Mr. Francisco Fesser, the director of the Chamber
of Commerce and his best source of information. He takes him to the Regla sugar
warehouses across the harbour: ‘The warehouses are protected against fire. They
are excellent. Each one has 360 feet of length and 36 of width. The machines can
place fifteen boxes of sugar in one line, the windows are made of glass with fans
and when it rains the water goes down to the earth through hollow columns. They
are very modern ...’
He visited the biggest cigarettes factory of Cuba in Havana ... La Honradez, whose
presentation documents you can see here. He explains every detail of the function-
ing of the factory: the machines, the presses, the advertisement, the production. ‘It
makes daily as much as two millions cigarettes and they are placed in boxes of 24
cigarettes and sell 40 boxes for $1. They earn a lot of money daily. The workers are
Chinese, Cubans an Spaniards ...’ They produce marvellous rings for the cigars.
Next he travels to Matanzas and is highly impressed by the dimensions of the
sugar cane plantations, the variety of fruits, especially guayaba and the famous
Fig. 1 – Great Tacon Theatre