Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1911

File No. 811.34537/56.

The American Minister to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Habana, Cuba, April 17, 1911.

No. 758.]

Sir: With reference to the project to enlarge our naval station at Guantánamo, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a “Confidential Memorandum,” which I read to Sr. Sanguily, the Cuban secretary of state, this afternoon, and left with him at his request. This memorandum was compiled from several of the department’s instructions or their accompanying documents (I from No. 254, II from No. 278,² and III from No. 277), and was presented to Sr. Sanguily as a reply to his confidential note of February 8, of which a copy was sent in my dispatch No. 623 * * *.³

I have, etc.,

John B. Jackson.

[Inclosure.]

The American Minister to the Cuban Secretary of State.

[Memorandum.]

I. [See Naval Station at Guantánamo.]

II. As to the release of Cuba by the President of the United States from any liability for the expenditures made by the American Government in connection with its maintenance of military forces in Cuba during the last intervention, it should be said that inasmuch as the Congress of the United States has never directed the President to make a demand upon Cuba for reimbursement of the expenditures by the Government of the United States, and inasmuch as the Executive has never made any demand or set forth any claim against the Government of Cuba for such expenditures, it would seem wisest to refrain from agitating the question at this time and meanwhile to permit the matter to rest where it now is.

III. [See Isle of Pines.]

Habana, April 17, 1911.

2. Printed under Naval Station at Guantánamo, p. 120.
3. The omission appears under Naval Station at Guantánamo, p. 121.