File No. 837.51/269
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury ( McAdoo )
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received your Department’s letter of September 5, 1917, in which you request an expression of my view as to whether “a mere declaration of war by the Cuban Government is in fact such an act as will permit the Secretary of [Page 311] the Treasury to assume that that Government is engaged in war “within the terms of the act of Congress, approved April 24, 1917. and entitled “An Act to authorize an issue of bonds to meet expenditures for the national security and defense, and for the purpose of assisting in the prosecution of the war, to extend credit to foreign governments, and for other purposes.” Your letter appears to be based on the assumption that the Cuban Government has done no more in the prosecution of hostilities against Germany than to make “a mere declaration of war.”
The question as to whether, under a given state of facts, your Department would be authorized, under the provisions of the above-mentioned act, to make a loan to the Cuban Government, would seem to be one for determination by the Attorney General.
With reference to the facts regarding the activities of the Cuban Government, however, I may state that, according to the Department’s records, the President of Cuba, on April 7, 1917, in pursuance of an act which had been unanimously passed by the Cuban Congress on that date, declared that from that day a state of war then existed “between the Republic of Cuba and the Imperial German Government.” The act of the Cuban Congress authorized the President of that country “to dispose of the land and sea forces in such manner as he should deem necessary, utilizing the existing forces, reorganizing them or creating new forces, and to dispose of the economic resources of the nation as required,” and called upon the President of Cuba to “report to Congress the measures which he shall adopt in fulfilment hereof.”
In a telegram bearing the same date as this act of Congress and presidential proclamation, the American Minister at Habana reported that “protective measures” had been taken by the Cuban authorities “so far as possible; “that a German hemp factory near Matanzas, where activities had been suspected and where a German Army officer had been located, had been occupied by the Cuban forces; that an “order for the registration of every German in the country “had been telegraphed to the district military commanders, as well as orders for the arrest of German Reserve officers in Cuba, and that the German vessels “interned” in Cuban ports had been seized and their officers and crews placed in the Habana fortress. Subsequently, as you are aware, the Cuban Government sent a commission to the United States to confer with this Government regarding the matter of the prosecution of the war against the common enemy.
On April 12, 1917, the President sent to the President of Cuba a telegram reading as follows:
I am greatly impressed by the unanimity with which the Cuban people through their constituted Congress have unhesitatingly east in their lot with the nations of the world who are championing the rights and liberties, not alone of neutrals, but of all mankind. We rejoice that Cuba, having gained the prize of self-government through sacrifice and blood, is in a position to appraise, as all regenerated peoples do, the worth of that prize, and stands ready to aid in confirming its existence for the welfare of mankind.
On April 14, 1917, the Minister at Habana was instructed to convey to the Cuban Government an appropriate expression of the gratification of the United States “at Cuba’s desire to cooperate in sending such a commission to the United States.”
[Page 312]In view of the above-mentioned facts and of these communications to the Cuban Government, I would suggest that if it be deemed inexpedient, at the present time, to make a loan to the Cuban Government under the terms of the act of Congress of April 24, 1917, the refusal should be based on other grounds than that Cuba is not, at the present time, “engaged in war with the enemies of the United States,” as indicated in this act.
Sincerely yours,