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, 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 afternoon¹.

I have [etc.],

John B. Jackson.

[Inclosure.]

The American Minister to the Cuban Secretary of State.

[Memorandum.]

I. See Naval station at Guantánamo.

II. See Claim for the cost of intervention in Cuba.

III. The attitude of the American Government with regard to the final settlement of the sovereignty over the Isle of Pines has been, made clear in the treaty signed at Washington on March 2, 1904, which was submitted to the Senate for its approval, but on which no action has as yet been taken. It is believed that any effort to procure favorable action of the United States Senate upon this treaty at this time would inevitably result in much adverse criticism and probably in the loss of the treaty. The American State Department consequently considers that the wisest course is to allow the matter to remain where it is at present.

Habana, April 17, 1911.

1. For remainder of this dispatch see Naval Station at Guantánamo, p. 121.