It has further been the business of the Junta—attended by risk of life to its agents—to keep in communication with the insurgents. This has been done by secret agents who come and go from New York to Key West, from Key West to Havana, from Havana into Spanish cities of Cuba and through the provinces of the island.
The headquarters of the Junta bears no outward sign except that the stars and stripes and the single starred flag of Cuba wave from the third-story window, where is Mr. Palma's office. A narrow hall and tortuous stairs lead to the office of the delegate, where on every side are signs of active business, with shelves, tables, and desks holding heaps of letters, books of accounts, and documents of various sorts. Here the delegate works, receives his friends, coworkers, and agents.
Off the main room is a private office, where secret agents report and are instructed, and where councils of moment are held and decisions of vital import to the Cuban cause reached, to be followed by orders that are of immense importance to the army of liberation.
The Cuban Junta, with its headquarters, represents the legation of the Cuban republic abroad, and the head of the Junta, as it is called, is T. Estrada Palma. Properly speaking he is the delegate, and with the members of his ministerial and diplomatic household constitutes the delegation of the Cuban republic.
The term "Junta" has been applied because such a body or council was attached to the diplomatic department of Cuba during the Ten Years' war. As the authority of the Junta frequently restricted the action of the delegate, the promoters of the present revolution decided to eliminate it; yet the name remains, and is used and accepted to designate Mr. Palma and his associates.
AUTHORITY OF THE JUNTA.
This Junta, as the representative of the Cuban republic, acts on high authority, for the delegation was appointed on September 19, 1895, by the Constituent Assembly that formed the government and commissioned Maximo Gomez chief commander of the Cuban army. At the same time it made Mr. Palma delegate and Cuban representative abroad, with authority to appoint ministers to all governments and to have control of all of Cuba's diplomatic relations and representatives throughout the world. Besides this, Mr. Palma is the duly accredited minister from Cuba to the United States, and in the event of the Cuban republic being recognized would be received as such.
Under his authority Mr. Palma has appointed sub-delegates, or diplomatic agents, in France, Italy, Mexico, and the Central and South American republics. Cuba's independence not being acknowledged by these nations, her ministers are not officially recognized, but are often unofficially received at the "back door," and exert an influence for the benefit of Cuba in the countries to which they are appointed.
Mr. Palma is in reality the head of the Cuban revolutionary party abroad, which is one of the three departments of the Cuban revolutionary government, the two others being the civil government and the army of liberation.
This Cuban revolutionary branch was founded by Jose Marti, who is regarded by the Cubans as the apostle and master mind of the Cuban revolution.