811.7311c Al 5/38: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Cuba (Long)
29. Your despatch 639, December 21. Transmit to Foreign Office following proposal for an agreement concerning certain cables of All America Cables, Incorporated, at Guantanamo:
“The Government of the United States is informed that All America Cables, Incorporated, desires permission to lay, land, maintain, and operate the following cables at Guantanamo:
- 1.
- One or more cables which the Cuban Government, by decree dated July 20, 1920, and numbered 1201,8 authorized All America Cables, Incorporated, to lay between the city of Santiago de Cuba or any other place in the immediate neighborhood designated by the company, and the Bay of Guantanamo.
- 2.
- One or more cables which the Government of Cuba, by decree dated July 20, 1920, and numbered 1202,8a authorized said company to lay between Habana or Cojimar or any other place in the immediate neighborhood selected by the company and the Bay of Guantanamo.
- 3.
- A cable from Guantanamo which shall have its other terminal in the Island of Porto Rico, and which may be connected with Santo Domingo and Haiti if the company so elects. It is understood that an application for this concession has been filed with the Cuban Government.
All America Cables, Incorporated, also desires permission to maintain and operate its cables now landed at Guantanamo which connect with New York City and Colon. It also desires permission to maintain and operate its relay station at Guantanamo and to receive and transmit all messages which come there over any of the cables of the company wherever situated.
Article 3 of the lease signed on July 2, 1903, granting the United States the use of certain areas at Guantanamo as a Naval Station, requires that the United States shall not permit any person, partnership or corporation to establish or maintain within the said areas a commercial, industrial or other enterprise.
As it is important that my Government shall have facilities for rapid communication between its Naval Station at Guantanamo and points in the United States and elsewhere, I have the honor to state that my Government will be grateful if the Cuban Government will consent to such a modification of Article 3 of the lease of July 2, 1903, as will permit All America Cables, Incorporated, to lay, land, maintain, and operate the aforesaid cables at Guantanamo; to maintain and operate its cables now landed at Guantanamo which connect with New York City and Colon; to maintain and operate its relay station at Guantanamo, and to receive and transmit all messages forward[ed] over its lines. This request is not intended to cover any further modification of the Article in question than that which would enable the All America Cables, Incorporated, to land and operate the cables just mentioned.
My Government is of the opinion that if the Government of Cuba is disposed to approve the proposed modification of Article 3 of the lease of July 2, 1903, in the manner above indicated such modification can be regarded as consummated by the delivery to me of a note from the Cuban Government acquiescing in my Government’s request.”