File No. 437.00/39.
The American Minister to
the Secretary of State.
No. 319.]
American Legation,
Habana,
July 1, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt
of the Department’s instruction No. 102 of June 24, directing me to
convey to the Cuban Secretary of State the substance of a memorandum of
a conversation between the Secretary of State and the French Ambassador
in Washington.
In compliance with this instruction, I have today transmitted to the
Cuban Government a note, copy of which I have the honor to transmit
herewith, giving what appears to be the substance of the memorandum in
question.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure.]
The American Minister
to the Cuban Secretary of
State.
No. 291.]
American Legation,
Habana,
July 1, 1912.
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Referring to
previous correspondence in regard to the so called “insurrectionary
claims” against Cuba for damages to British, [Page 286] French and German citizens during the last
Cuban war of independence, I beg to inform you that the French
Ambassador in Washington recently called upon Secretary Knox to
request that he suggest to the Cuban Government the desirability of
arbitrating the fundamental question as to the liability of the
Cuban Government in regard to these claims.
Secretary Knox informed the Ambassador that you had asked his opinion
as to whether the Cuban Government should agree to submit these
claims to arbitration. He added that he would advise the Cuban
Government to arbitrate the fundamental question as to whether,
under the rules of international law, Cuba was responsible for the
damages suffered during the revolution, under the peculiar
circumstances surrounding the birth of the Cuban Republic, and that
he had intimated to you during his recent visit to Habana that this
was a question which should be arbitrated. He told the Ambassador
that you had informed him that if the Cuban Government were willing
to arbitrate the question it would not wish to take it to The Hague
because, while you yourself did not share the opinion, yet it was
undoubtedly the view of the majority of the Cuban people that
France, Germany and Great Britain would stand a better chance before
The Hague court than Cuba; and that you had also said that the
expense of an arbitration at The Hague was so great that you thought
it would be better, if the question were to be arbitrated, to submit
it to some distinguished jurist or jurists who might be agreed
upon.
The Ambassador replied that it was his belief that Cuba would stand
even a better chance at The Hague than the European powers, and
requested that the Secretary so inform you. The promise of Secretary
Knox to the Ambassador was that he would advise the Cuban Government
that in the opinion of the American Government the fundamental
question at issue should be arbitrated and that he would communicate
to you what the Ambassador had said in favor of arbitration at The
Hague.
I am [etc.]
