This is _prima facie_ a valid obligation of the municipality, and should be funded. But before making a new loan for the purpose of paying these debts it would be only proper to have a court of claims established, before which all the creditors of the municipality could appear and definitely prove the amount of their claims and the date at which they accrued. The debt question of Havana can not be disposed of lightly. In his instructive report on the municipal finances of Havana, General Greene gives it as his opinion that $12,500,000 is not excessive for a city of the size and wealth of Havana. Discussing the question with prominent financiers of Havana, the author found that these gentlemen agreed substantially with General Greene, some going so far as to declare the city could easily stand double the present debt, which would bring it up to $25,000,000. According to the last census, the only city comparable with Havana in the United States that carries a debt approaching this was Cincinnati, which had then a debt of $24,737,611. Cleveland, on the other hand, with a population about the same, had in 1890 a debt of only $6,143,206. The other United States cities of about the same population are respectively Pittsburg, debt, $10,026,806; Buffalo, debt, $10,843,029; Milwaukee, debt only $2,915,900; and San Francisco, less than $1,000,000 of municipal indebtedness. The debts of both Boston and Philadelphia were in 1890 less than $30,000,000. It will be bad financiering to burden Havana at present with more debt. When the budget is fully examined by expert accountants a large floating debt will be found, some of which it may be right and just to pay, and much of which is fraudulent. There will be long past-due gas bills, aggregating over $500,000; unpaid bills for street cleaning; salary accounts unadjusted, and a great variety of debts the validity of which may have to be tried in the courts. To meet current expenses the revenues of the city will have to be increased and honestly expended. Naturally, the city will have to bear its share of the important sanitary work which must be done in Havana, but as this work is for the general welfare of the Island, part of it may rightly be taken from the general funds. Judged from an American point of view, the municipal debt of Havana at the present moment is quite large enough, and great care should be taken not to increase it beyond the danger line.