File No. 837.13/12.
The Department of State to the Cuban Legation.
aide mémoire.
The Department of State acknowledges the receipt of the Cuban Minister’s pro memoria, dated March 10, 1913, wherein reference is made to the amnesty bill recently passed by the Cuban Congress and wherein the Cuban Minister informs the Department that the Secretary of State of Cuba has not been able to ascertain from the numerous notes addressed to him by the American Minister at Habana what precepts contained in the amnesty bill are believed to cause injury in any manner to American or other foreign citizens, adding that no specific article or paragraph has been pointed out by the American Minister, and that the Cuban Minister has consequently been instructed to request of the Department of State that it indicate the terms of the amnesty bill that are understood to be injurious. A copy of the bill and of certain articles of the Cuban penal code accompany the pro memoria.
In reply the Department of State informs the Cuban Minister that the objections to the bill in its provisions other than those providing for the granting of amnesty to political offenders would seem to be manifest from the terms of the bill itself, quite apart from the statements made respecting it in the various communications hitherto addressed to the Cuban Government, as well as from the discussion which the American Legation has had with the Cuban authorities which earlier led to the declaration of the President of Cuba that in view of these objections he would in any event take such action with respect to the bill, if passed, as would cause it to grant amnesty only to political offenders.
It may at this time, however, be reiterated that the bill in its articles 1, 3 and 4 appears to grant amnesty for a large number of common crimes committed both by individuals and by Government officials. In its article 2 it grants without any limitation whatsoever amnesty for all crimes and misdemeanors committed by public functionaries or employees in the exercise of or in connection with their duties in respect to which criminal proceedings have been instituted or judgment rendered. (Reference, of course, is to be made to article 5, which limits the amnesty to crimes committed before the 1st of January of the present year.) Aside from the injury to American citizens and others by the denial of legal recourse for wrongs inflicted upon them by the persons whom these provisions would absolve from responsibility, specific instances of which are understood to have been called to the attention of the Cuban Government, it would appear that in general, as previously indicated, the bill as a result of practically all its provisions would create a situation with respect to the administration of law and the enforcement of justice in Cuba which would seem to [Page 361] evidence a failure of the Cuban Government adequately to protect life, property and individual liberty.
The objection of this Government, therefore, to the bill is that, in all its provisions, with the exception of those applying to political offenses, it would seem to threaten consequences which both Governments desire to avoid.
Washington , March 12, 1913.