File No. 837.61351/81
The Cuban Minister ( De Céspedes) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to inform your excellency that the contract for the sale of Cuban sugar of the 1917–18 harvest, entered into by the International Committee, the United States Food Administration and the Cuban commissions over which I have had the honor to preside was approved by my Government on the 17th day of January of this year in the form established in the final text of the said contract of the 10th of the same month and year, putting it into legal effect from that day of January 1918, and I beg your [Page 354] excellency to be good enough so to advise the Food Administrator of the United States.
In accepting the contract which my Government proposes to observe and cause to be observed in its every part in as far as it lies within its province, it finds great pleasure in feeling that it is contributing to the common cause in these decisive moments for the freedom of the world and is fully confident that your excellency’s Government and the various administrations and organizations created in connection with the war that are to have a part in carrying out the agreement will see to its being done under the most favorable conditions that can be allowed to the Cuban people.
I avail myself of the opportunity to suggest to your excellency that in order to impart to the harvesting of sugar the highest efficiency and speed, it would be of great help and very desirable to extend to the trade of Cuba the best facilities compatible with the state of war, seeing that, as I have already assured your excellency in the name of my Government, goods imported from the United States are not reexported from Cuba, and the Board of National Defense has not only recommended the greatest economy in consumption to the people, but also sees with patriotic interest that the orders are for what our Republic truly and imperatively needs, at the same time as the country itself is furthering cultivation and breeding in every province, to such a degree, however, as will not detract from the sugar-cane growing which is of such importance to its allies and is the main foundation of our economic life.
I renew [etc.]