File No. 837.00/773.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs to the American Minister.
Habana, June 8, 1912.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note No. 2071 of the 5th instant, inclosing copy of a note of the same date which you addressed to the President, quoting in part a cablegram which your excellency had received from your Government to the effect that the situation had compelled the commandant of the naval station at Guantánamo to land four companies of marines, and that this action had been taken solely as a measure of precaution and not for the purpose of putting down the rebellion. The cablegram in question also announced the sending of four warships from Key West to Guantánamo for a similar purpose should the situation require additional forces, and, in conclusion, expressed the hope that these measures would bring the Cuban Government to a realizing sense of the necessity of promptly and adequately attending to its duties and responsibilities.
Your excellency added that the Government of the United States desired to announce, through the authorized medium of your excellency, that it would, under certain conditions mentioned and in the event of the continuance of those conditions, be unavoidably compelled to intervene.
And although this announcement of a contingency which, as it is apparently desired to convey, may soon arise is predicated upon observations that are more or less debatable, since your excellency’s Government must from the attitude assumed have felt justified, from [Page 258] its point of view, to make such observations, I shall not of course examine them closely, nor is it incumbent upon me or appropriate to discuss them; for in these times of trial for their country it is not meet for Cubans to place themselves in the light of thwarting the action of the American Government, more especially because they should not allow themselves for a single instant to doubt the good faith or intentions of the American Government concerning the stability of this Republic.
But permit me, Mr. Minister, in discharge of my conscience and in behalf of the Cuban Government, to be so honestly frank with you as to say that the intervention which has been initiated and is being prepared is in no sense justified.
Inasmuch as it is our affairs—matters of the utmost transcendence, that are really and essentially vital—that are at stake, it will not be denied that we have, at least conjointly with the right, the duty to judge the acts of others which so profoundly and absolutely concern us, which to such a degree affect our existence and our pride; for it is true beyond doubt that our Government has not failed in its earnest endeavor to combat the racial uprising and adequately to protect the lives and property of American citizens, since it is a notorious fact that no American property had been destroyed nor had the life of any American citizen been endangered prior to the landing of the American marines. In the short space of two weeks the Cuban Government has really performed wonders; indeed, not every government, even among the best, would, in view of the peculiar circumstances and the exceptional nature of the present conflict, have acted with equal diligence and such extraordinary success.
No one better than your excellency can bear witness to my assertions, acquainted as you are with the great difficulties with which the Cuban Government has had to contend, to the extent even of having had to suspend military operations, or modify the most carefully prepared plans, because of the pressure brought by foreign property owners, or their resident managers, who have contributed so greatly to inciting and keeping alive the alarm, especially abroad, with their clamors for protection for their industries, farms, or dwellings, while the natives, without legations to which to appeal, were left completely unprotected.
Your excellency knows that this is an island as narrow as it is mountainous; that the population is relatively sparse and distributed over vast solitudes despite the great progress of all kinds lately made; and that with the whites coexist an enormous mass of peoples of African extraction, many of them awakened to the highest ambitions and most unattainable desires (through the fault, be it said, of the governments which have ruled the country during the past quarter century, without exculpating any of them, though the sins of all arose from the noblest and most generous impulses) which has in the end broken out in an explosion of barbarism. So, too, has your excellency been able to see through the intentions of the insurrectionists as proclaimed by their leaders and published in the press, for the perverse authors of the uprising, alleging fantastic grievances, admit that they have the astounding intention of burning foreign property in order to force upon the United States the necessity for intervention in the absurd and grotesque hope that, as on a former [Page 259] occasion in dealing with the whites, the United States would enter into arrangements with them after first turning out the Government that opposed them.
Yet in but fifteen days this Government, despite so many setbacks, swept the western provinces clear of the stupid rebellion and has reduced it to the limited zone of Oriente Province, where, ceaselessly and tirelessly, it pursues the villainous bands into the very heart of the rough mountains in which they have taken refuge in order safely to plot the destruction of the property of whites or diabolical assaults upon the honor of white women.
In such circumstances the Cuban Government is of the belief that more could not be expected of it, and that more could not have been done by any government under the same conditions; and therefore so quickly and unjustly to declare the Government a “failure” in this sense is not only to commit a great injustice but to discredit it without purpose and without even advantage to anyone. Now that so many negroes have learnt a lesson, or have repented, it is not to be assumed that the uprising so resolutely prosecuted will extend to or break out in the western provinces, and, too, the assurance can be vouchsafed that in the affected zone, where the indefatigable and vigorous prosecution of our troops and of our enthusiastic volunteers have the movement cornered and almost in its last gasps, it will soon—as soon as is humanly possible, but, in any event, in a very short time—be broken up and overcome, without outside assistance and solely by the efforts of the Government and the patriotic and valorous cooperation of our people, because, in fine, the conscience and will of the nation have so resolved. For these legitimate reasons, I can really see no objection (but, in fact, positive advantage) to the United States Government—placing itself in our position and considering the efforts we have put forth, the sufficient means at our disposal, and the unanimity with which the country has responded to our call to crush, in one definite and supreme attack, the criminal uprising which is already beginning to show signs of death—deferring its preparations (if, indeed, it be true that such preparations are being made) for such time as may reasonably be considered necessary for Cuba to put the finishing touches to its work—the time that the American Government itself would need were it in our place—thus preventing the discredit of a friendly Government such as ours, in regard to which there are those who already look forward with indecent anxiety to its disacknowledgment by the Government which, on the contrary, should encourage and reinforce it with its sympathy and consideration.
Nevertheless, however the procedure of your excellency’s Government may be regarded, and although the news of an impending intervention of a nature and extent at present unknown has created wide consternation, for my own part, as also for the part of my Government, Mr. Minister, after the protestations from Washington and the assurances which your excellency yourself has been good enough to give me in several interviews, we are of the number who in the present case attribute to the American Government the purpose of preparing an intervention in our internal affairs of a different character, more honorable to the people and Government of the United States, and at the same time more decorous and consoling for Cubans [Page 260] and the civilization which they represent, many of whom have memories of past interventions.
The rectitude of the intentions and the unwavering purpose of the United States to support and maintain through the vicissitudes of our national development the independence of the Island of Cuba having always in the end been plainly manifested, any possibility is conceivable to me in human affairs save that the friendly relations between the American Government and people and the Cuban Government and people (whose mutual affection and concord no circumstance should, for the honor of the United States and the happiness of this people, ever diminish and much less destroy) should not continue, if possible, more solid, more intimately sincere and cordial.
I avail myself, etc.,
- Transmitting Department’s instruction of June 5.↩