837.00/2087: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Cuba ( Long )
20. For General Crowder. Your April 18, 6 p.m.21
The Department would be glad to have you commence immediately to confer with Doctor Zayas in order that he may be impressed with the earnest desire of this Government … that there may be no repetition in the future of that failure in the elections which has provoked the serious crisis in the national life of the Republic which has existed during the last five months. Doctor Zayas should be advised at the outset that the Government of the United States believes that there is implicit in the Treaty of 190322 the obligation on the part of the Republic of Cuba to maintain an honest and efficient government in return for the obligations assumed by the United States. Doctor Zayas, this Government believes, will readily agree that his administration will not be able to maintain the high standards of efficiency and integrity which this Government realizes it is his earnest desire to have it maintain, unless his appointees to cabinet positions are men of the highest ability and unquestioned honesty. The Department considers that it would be well for you to emphasize, at the first opportunity, the hopes of this Government as above indicated.
Please cable the Department any information which you may have tending to show any commitments which Doctor Zayas may have made, and any advice which you may receive from him as to the appointments which he may be inclined to make in the future cabinet.
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1904, pp. 243 ff.↩