File No. 837.156/178.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Habana, December 22, 1913.
Sir: I have the honor to report that, having in pursuance of the Department’s instruction of December 1 communicated to the Foreign [Page 381] Office in the terms of the instruction the withdrawal of the Department’s previous objections to the project of building a bridge across Habana harbor, I have received a note from the Cuban Secretary of State on this subject. After reminding me that by Decree No. 341 of June 30, 1913, the President had declared null and void President Gomez’s Decree No. 180 of March 10, 1911, embodying the original concession, as well as the Amendatory Decree No. 1076 of December 12, 1912, he states that “the President maintains in full force and effect his aforesaid decree of June 30 last, because the same legal reasons which prompted its issue still exist, that is to say, because the two decrees so annulled were flagrant violations of the law, embodying substantial defects in the concession.”
I have [etc.]