File No. 837.00/1429
The Secretary of State to the Cuban Minister ( De Céspedes)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of October 11 last in which you enclose a copy of a communication from the judge of “the Special Court in charge of Case No. 145, of 1917, in the province of the Examining Magistrate of Santiago de Cuba,” to the Cuban Secretary of State, in which the former asks that the Cuban Government will take the necessary steps to obtain from the Government of the United States, for use by the Court “as corpus delicti” in the prosecution “on the charges of rebellion and concomitant offenses, against Rafael Manderley y del Rio, et al.” the money received by the American authorities in the Republic of Haiti from the accused persons, Rigoberto Fernández Lecuona, Luís Loret de Mola y Castillo, Luis Estrada y Estrada, José de Cárdenas Armenteros and Joaquín A. de Oro y Vizcaino.
The Department, in order to obtain more definite information regarding the nature of the judicial proceedings in question, directed an inquiry through the American Legation at Habana and has received a reply stating that the President of Cuba has informed the Legation that the judicial proceedings “against Rafael Manderley, et al., is for taking part in revolution”; that they are “of the same character as all suits against rebellious citizens,” and that they have “nothing whatever to do with funds taken out of Cuba by Fernandez.” In the circumstances, therefore, I am somewhat reluctant at the present time to direct the payment of the funds in question in the manner suggested.
In the document accompanying your note of May 29 last,1 regarding the suggested extradition of the accused persons, it was alleged that these funds belonged to the Department of Public Works, the Provincial Council, the Customs Service, the Department of Posts, the Fiscal Zone and “merchants and establishments” in Santiago. This allegation is substantiated in the main by a communication which the Department has received direct from Fernandez.
In view, therefore, of the apparently public character of the greater proportion of the funds, I am prepared to direct their delivery to the Cuban Government for distribution in accordance with the law of that country if I can be assured that the Cuban Government will thereafter hold the Government of the United States and its officers harmless from all claims of whatsoever nature which may be brought against it or them by Fernandez, et al., the Cuban Government or any agency thereof, or otherwise, on account of the [Page 281] possession or transfer of these moneys by the Government of the United States or on account of any action of the United States or its officers in regard to them, or otherwise.
I shall be glad to receive an expression of the views of the Cuban Government regarding the delivery of the funds to it under the circumstances just indicated.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩