File No. 837.6112/17.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Consul General .
Washington , October 24, 1912 .
Sir: By Executive Decree No. 556 dated June 18, and published in the Gaceta Oficial of June 21, 1912, the President of Cuba granted to the Compañía Agricultora de Zapata, a concession for the reclamation of the Zapata Swamp. On July 17, the American Legation at Habana was instructed by telegram to address a note to the Government of Cuba in the sense of the following:
After such an examination as the Department of State has found it possible to make, the Zapata Swamp project appears so clearly ill-advised and improvident and such a reckless wasting of revenue and of natural resources which the Government of Cuba can ill afford to lose, that the Government of the United States is impelled to express to the Cuban Government its strong disapproval of the scheme and its firm conviction that upon final consideration the Cuban authorities will not suffer a measure so inimical to the interests of the Cuban people to be put into operation.
To this the Government of Cuba replied, controverting the various allegations upon which the Department’s opinion above stated was based and affirming that the concession is free from objection. About the middle of August, however, the Department was informed that President Gómez had repealed or suspended the decree granting the concession.
Recently, Mr. Isaac K. Champion, claiming to represent the concessionary company, has called at the Department and in continuation of his representations recently addressed to the Legation at Habana has, in an interview with the law officers of the Department, [Page 319] made answer to the various objections which have been leveled at the project, with a view to removing this Government’s opposition.
He states that if this opposition is removed, the suspended decree will be revived and the concessionary company will undertake the projected work. His various statements have raised disputed issues of fact which he has been informed would be referred to Habana for investigation and report.
The Department accordingly transmits copies1 of two letters received from Mr. Champion dated the third and eighth instant, which purport to sum up the conference between Mr. Champion and the law officers of the Department, and instructs you to make the desired investigation. In this investigation you will confer with the Legation, which has been instructed to cooperate with you. There is, of course, in the Legation’s files a considerable record of the case up to the present time of which you may desire to make use.
It may be observed that, in view of the course which the matter has taken, you will realize that as a prerequisite to its final decision in the matter the Department desires the most careful and thorough investigation possible of the various issues raised, to the end that any action which it may hereafter take in the matter may be based upon a wholly satisfactory and adequate knowledge of the facts involved.
To clarify the issues for the investigation, the Department also encloses as a supplement to Mr. Champion’s two letters mentioned herein before, a memorandum of the conference between Mr. Champion and the law officers of the Department with certain suggestions respecting the desired investigation.1 You will understand, of course, that your investigations should not necessarily be confined to the issues presented in the enclosed memorandum, but properly should include any other considerations which may seem to you to be relevant and important.
If necessary, you may go to the Zapata region and there conduct such direct investigations as may seem to you advisable. Your report should be furnished to the Department at as early a date as practicable.
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