The Atkins Properties comprise one property belonging to Mr. Edward F. Atkins, of Boston, who is reputed to be the first American to have acquired a sugar property in Cuba, and three others belonging to or controlled by the Punta Alegre Sugar Company, the most active personality connected with which is Mr. Robert W. Atkins. The Punta Alegre Sugar Company was incorporated, in 1915, as a holding and operating company, engaged in the business of owning and operating sugar plantations and factories in the Island of Cuba. It owns and controls 40,831 acres and leases 25,717 acres of land; and is reported to be doubling the capacity of its central at Punta Alegre. Credit for the suggestion and initiative that resulted in the combination of these properties and the organization of this Company is generally given to Mr. Ezra J. Barker (Ray Barker) of New York, and Major Maude, a retired British Army officer who for many years has resided in Cuba. The prestige and financial standing of the officers and directors of and of the capitalists interested in the Punta Alegre Sugar Company and the Atkins Properties is sufficient to guarantee the successful operation of these properties. The Poté Rodriguez Properties are the personal property of Don José Lopez Rodriguez, who is a Spanish subject residing in Havana, and known to every body as “Poté.” Some say that this nickname is an abbreviation of the word “poder,” or “power.” Certain it is that Don Poté Rodriguez is, in fact, a human dynamo, the very embodiment of power and push. Beginning as a book-seller, stationer and printer, on Obispo Street, Havana, where he still conducts that business and makes his headquarters, he has, in recent years, acquired a controlling interest in the Banco Nacional de Cuba, a corporation having a capital of $8,000,000; he has also invested several millions of dollars in an elaborate suburban annex to the city of Havana, including a large Portland cement plant; he has contracted to dig the Roque Canal, projected to drain the Jovellanos Flats and part of the Cienaga or swamp lands near Cardenas; and he is the sole owner of the Central España, the pride of his heart, upon which he has worked day and night for years, hoping to make it the largest producing sugar “central” in Cuba. But despite his efforts three other “centrales” surpass it in productive capacity.