sion of the people so that there would not be anything involved with the exception of whether or not they wish to take over the management of their own government, you think the result might be different than if they voted in the matter of one of three or four alternatives, whether it be independent government, commonwealth, or statehood. Is that right?

Dr. CONCEPCION DE GRACIA. I was answering your question when I said that Congress can pass a law granting national independence to Puerto Rico and Congress, worried by what you just said, then refers to the vote of the people of Puerto Rico and it has to be accepted by the majority of the people of Puerto Rico. Only at that time, if the people of Puerto Rico reject independence, then Congress would have this charge, this responsibility. But to this time Congress has taken no step to that end.

Mr. ASPINALL. Let me see if I understand you correctly.

In other words, as far as you are concerned, you think the question should be either for independence or against independence without any other alternative being placed on the plebiscite?

Dr. CONCEPCION DE GRACIA. Correct, sir.

Mr. ASPINALL. That is all.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Powell.

Mr. POWELL. Your party believes in attaining its goal through what method?

Dr. CONCEPCION DE GRACIA. Through using the ballot, organization of the people, persuading the people, explaining to them the whole situation.

Mr. POWELL. In other words, you do not advocate violence?
Dr. CONCEPCION DE GRACIA. That is right.

Mr. POWELL. Thank you.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Westland?
Mr. WESTLAND. No questions.
Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Ullman?
Mr. ULLMAN. No questions.
Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Rivers?
Mr. RIVERS. No questions.
Mr. O'BRIEN. Dr. Fernós?

Mr. FERNÓS-ISERN. No questions.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you very much, Doctor, for a very fine statement. [Applause]

Dr. CONCEPCION DE GRACIA. Thank you.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I have here a letter from Rafael Carrion, Jr., president of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, who had planned to appear before the committee but has asked the liberty of filing a statement commenting on the provision in the Federal Relations Act regarding the debt limitations of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Unless there is an objection, it will be placed in the record at the place deemed proper by the staff.

Hearing no objection, it is so ordered.

(The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF RAFAEL CARRIÓN, JR.

My name is Rafael Carrión, Jr. I am president of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, the largest commercial bank in the island and an active participant in all financial activities relating ot the economic development of Puerto Rico; and

particularly an active member of syndicates bidding on all bond issues of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its dependencies.

The following statement, however, is made in my own personal capacity as a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rico.

The provision of H.R. 9234, article XVI, section 5, eliminates from the Federal Relations Act the limitations on the public indebtedness of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, provided that the Commonwealth, by amendment to the constitution, shall have adopted limitations upon its debt incurring capacity. It seems proper that such limitations should exist in the local constitution rather than in the Federal Relations Act for the same reason that the debt incurring limits of the States in the Union is likewise restricted by their own constitution.

Inasmuch as each individual State is in a better position to properly judge its requirements, as well as its prudent limitations to incur debt, it seems logical that the individual States, including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, should have such discretion.

Puerto Rico has shown throughout its history that it can conservatively incur into debt without exceeding its ability to comfortably repay such debts. At no time in our history has there been any difficulty in meeting properly an obligation of the government of Puerto Rico or any of its dependencies.

Upon adopting in our constitution a limitation on the debt incurring capacity of Puerto Rico, the provisions as contemplated include authority to incur debt for an additional 10 percent of the total assessed valuation of property in Puerto Rico, but restricts such increased borrowing capacity to the improvement of educational facilities, public roads, streets and highways. This, in effect, is no different from the situation as it occurs in many States of the Union where school districts and road districts are created, with overlapping taxing power, and whose indebtedness is not computed as part of the State debt. In Puerto Rico such overlapping districts do not exist at the present time.

I should not burden the committee with either analysis or statistics over and above those that are being and will be submitted by other testimonies during the course of the hearings.

The fact that an additional debt incurring capacity may be authorized in our constitution does not mean that the established limits will be actually reached. At the present time, with the economic growth and development that Puerto Rico has experienced in the last few years, increased activities on the part of the government are naturally required, which necessitate additional flexibility in the debt incurring capacity of the Commonwealth. In the final analysis, however, it is the Legislature of Puerto Rico which must approve each individual loan that may be authorized and, as indicated above, our history shows that at no time in the past has our legislature approved loans in excess of our ability to repay such loans with ample margin.

We have an additional check on the amount of debt which may be incurred by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and that is the market for our securities. All bonds and obligations issued by our government are offered for sale in the U.S. market, where they are meeting today with ever-increasing acceptability. Our government has always been on the alert to maintain our debt within conservative limits, anxious, of course, to continue enjoying the acceptability that our securities find in the U.S. market.

Supported by the above considerations I respectfully recommend that the debt limitations of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico be deleted from the Federal Relations Act, and that they be incorporated in our local constitution, as proposed under H.R. 9234.

Respectfully,

R. CARRIÓN. Jr.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Our next witness is Mr. Juan Mari Bras, president of the Pro-Independence Movement.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. O'BRIEN. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF JUAN MARI BRAS, PRESIDENT, THE

PRO-INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

Mr. MARI BRAS. Gentlemen of the committee:

We shall use the time allowed here to point out the principal parts of the statement filed with the Senate Committee on Insular Affairs,

copies of which were also filed in the office of this committee, but the copies are in Washington.

In the first place, we do not come here to ask for privileges of any kind whatsoever. We have come to claim the most elemental right that any nation can demand-the right to be independent and to exercise its sovereign authority free from impositions and pressures from any foreign power.

That right is so fundamental that it is considered inalienable by civilized people all over the world to the extent that it was consecrated in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America almost two centuries ago.

Second, Puerto Rico is our only country. Small and with limited resources as this country is, we cherish it with the same devotion that you may have for your big and powerful nation.

We constitute a well-defined nationality. As such, this island is a part of the family of nations known as Latin America. That is a fact, not a radical fiction. Our country is governed by the United States through an authority that sprang from brutal force and not from any legitimate source of law. You came here uninvited in 1898, bringing war to the Puerto Ricans.

Since that military invasion our history has been a continuous struggle between the North American pretention of totally destroying the basis of our nationality and the heroic and successful resistance by our people.

The island was proclaimed an American territory in 1900 without consultation. In 1917, the U.S. citizenship was imposed upon us in spite of the fact that the Puerto Rico House of Delegates, our only legislative body at the time, manifested an opposition to that measure. In the course of 61 years since 1898, all the resources of Federal and insular agencies and instrumentalities, as well as the educational and religious institutions, have been directed to transform the people of Puerto Rico into artificial American citizens.

The economic life of the island has been forcefully assimilated to the United States. American capital came in and took control, first of the sugar industry, expanding it as a source of raw material for U.S. industry-a typical colonial treatment.

Now the economic invasion is total. American interests monopolize industry and commerce.

The Armed Forces of the United States have operated at will in our territory, and today more than 10 percent of our national territory, most of it the best soil of the island, is possessed by the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Third, in 1952, a use tax was imposed on Puerto Rico regulating the delegated local authority. There was no fundamental change in the pattern of our colonial regime. Nevertheless, the U.S. Government stimulated the illusion of some shortsighted Puerto Ricans who alleged that our country had emerged at last a self-sustaining, selfgoverning nation. In fact, a representation was made before the United Nations General Assembly that this was true as the basis for asking that Puerto Rico be considered an autonomous country.

Now, 7 years after that experiment in colonialism began, it having become obvious that it has failed to convince the world, spokesmen from the U.S. Congress affirm there is no revocable pact negotiated between Congress and the people of Puerto Rico.

To say that the majority here indorse the present status is sheer nonsense and that a plebiscite should be held in which the people vote for either status quo, statehood, or independence. We repudiate such a plebiscite. As long as Puerto Rico is ruled by Congress, and consequently the military and juridical forces placed here through Federal legislation are present in the island, you cannot talk seriously of a desire to respect the free determination of the Puerto Rican people. Only through the exercise of the full unabridged sovereign power can a country express its self-determination. The only possible way in which you can demonstrate the good faith of Congress in the case of Puerto Rico is by recognizing independence.

You did not hold any plebiscite to invade this island. We do not see any reason why you should hold one to return it to its only legiti mate owners, the people of Puerto Rico.

The idea of the plebiscite to solve colonial problems is even more discredited than the so-called commonwealth status of colonies.

Hitler's plebiscites are still in the minds of the whole world. We shall continue insisting on our inalienable right to be free and sovereign. We know that our claim is just. We know that our nation is deeply rooted in a history 100 years older than yours.

We know that the Latin American countries understand perfectly well that the presence of the U.S. Government in our territory is a constant provocation against the whole continent. We know that the logical thing will force the United States to recognize independence to Puerto Rico because you will never find a different way to solve the problem.

We know, as well as the United States does, that the illusion of statehood is just another political maneuver which will fail to confuse the world in the same manner that the illusion of the so-called Commonwealth has already failed.

The alternative, gentlemen, is to perpetrate colonialism in the midst of the 20th century here in Puerto Rico or recognize independence. You know perfectly well that autonomy of the so-called Commonwealth is not seated within the legal entities of the U.S. constitutional framework.

You know perfectly well that as long as the Puerto Rican nationality is present here, you will not make this country a State of the Union. That is the precedent in Hawaii, in Alaska, and in all the States that have come into the Union. You first destroyed the nationality and then take it within the Union when the American way of life is predominant. That is not the situation here and will never be.

We guarantee that, as long as there are Puerto Ricans here in this country, we will not renounce our nationality, our way of life and that, therefore, there is not the least possibility of statehood.

Therefore, we conclude that this is not a matter of plebiscite; this is not a matter of alternatives-that the only alternative that you have to solve the moral problem before the world is to recognize full sovereignty to the people of Puerto Rico.

Thank you.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I just have more of a statement than a question. You referred to the fact that the Armed Forces have 10 percent of your property here, indicating that that was part of this colonialism of which you speak.

49511-60-17

Mr. MARI BRAS. Yes, sir.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I think the record should show in the sovereign State of Alaska, the largest under the American flag, two-thirds of their land is held by the Federal Government.

Mr. MARI BRAS. There is a fundamental difference-that Alaska is part of the United States, of the American Nation.

Mr. O'BRIEN. So is Puerto Rico.

Mr. MARI BRAS. We are not a part. [Applause.] We do not believe that that the fiction of our being an American territory destroys the natural fact that we are a Latin American nation.

Mr. O'BRIEN. A few years ago $10 would have gotten you a thousand that Hawaii, with its mixed population, would never become a State. It is.

Mr. MARI BRAS. It is.

Mr. O'BRIEN. It is hard to figure what Congress might do.
Mr. MARI BRAS. Do they really talk English in Hawaii?

Mr. O'BRIEN. Yes.

Mr. MARI BRAS. We don't here.

Mr. O'BRIEN. From what I heard today, everybody eventually will speak English in Puerto Rico. [Applause.]

Mr. MARI BRAS. No.

Mr. O'BRIEN. Those are the only points I had.

Mr. Aspinall.

Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Mari Bras, you made a very fine short statement making your position very plain. What is your occupation?

Mr. MARI BRAS. I am an attorney.

Mr. ASPINALL. What is the difference between the organization for which you speak today and the organization for which Dr. Concepcion de Gracia spoke a few moments ago?

Mr. MARI BRAS. The first one is a political party, and we are a nonpartisan organization.

Mr. ASPINALL. How do you go about gaining the ends which you have in mind?

Mr. MARI BRAS. We do not pretend to make independence by ourselves-I mean the movement which I represent. The fight for independence is the product of the combined efforts of all people who believe in independence the Independence Party going to the polls, our organization making pressure for our independence outside of Puerto Rico and within Puerto Rico, and different other factors combined together will produce our national liberation.

Mr. ASPINALL. That is by generating thinking. Or do you have in mind violence, too?

Mr. MARI BRAS. Not violence. It is not a matter of violence; it is a matter of urging the recognition of a right which is ours.

Mr. ASPINALL. By making a situation in the minds of people not only here in Puerto Rico but other places, even in the mainland of the United States and Congress?

Mr. MARI BRAS. That is right.

Mr. ASPINALL. I appreciate your position. Thank you very much. Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Ullman.

Mr. ULLMAN. I have one question of the witness. Are you an American citizen?