837.00/3542: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 4:10 p.m.]
79. My 75, June 8, 2 p.m. Doctor de la Torriente’s statement was published in the local press this morning as previously agreed. The major portion of the statement is devoted to a vigorous but nevertheless constructive and temperate attack on the policies of the Machado administration. In the concluding paragraphs he refers to the recent invitation of President Machado to his opponents to discuss the solution of the existing political problem with him as “good Cubans” and reiterates his own opinion as previously expressed that a satisfactory solution can only come through a discussion by representatives of the Government and of the factions comprising the opposition to the Government—such representatives to be necessarily individuals who are free from passion and who have not undergone personal loss or suffering from the events of the past few years. In conclusion Doctor de la Torriente states that in his judgment, such a discussion, even with the restrictions indicated, would be useless unless both sides previously agree upon “an individual in whom both sides have confidence who would be willing through his mediation and advice to bring them to a definite agreement”.
The opinion thus expressed by Doctor de la Torriente in which he expresses his desire that my mediation be accepted by all the opposition factions, as it has already been accepted by the Government, will be supported in additional statements to be made in the press today and tomorrow by outstanding citizens of the opposition factions including Doctor Varona who has very great influence among the elements composing the so-called intellectual groups.
[Page 307]Doctor de la Torriente has now succeeded in uniting here a group comprising outstanding members of every one of the opposition groups. They are almost all in accord with the program determined upon and are necessarily far better aware of the favorable reaction created opposition sectors by the events of the past few days than are the other representatives on these same groups composing the junta in New York. Yesterday they agreed to send to the United States today Doctor Albanes who is a leading figure in the opposition section of the Conservative Party in Congress; and Doctor Roberto Mendez Pefiate brother of Colonel Mendez Peñate of the New York junta. These two representatives will first visit General Menocal in Miami and then proceed to New York to confer with the members of the junta there. They will insist through instructions given to them by the newly-formed group in Havana that the leaders in the United States either agree to come to Cuba and cooperate or else remain in the United States and enter into a commitment to refrain from urging or from directing any further acts of violence in Cuba. They will inform General Menocal that there is no popular support in Cuba today for his revolutionary program.
I am hopeful owing to the importance of these emissaries and owing to the definite decision to cooperate reached by the Habana group that the New York junta will soon disintegrate. With regard to General Menocal I strongly recommend that at an early date some proper representative of our Department of Justice see him in Miami and advise him that because of the consideration which the Government of the United States wishes to show him as a former President of Cuba and as a friend of the United States he should realize that he and his friends are under strict surveillance and it is hoped that he will not lend himself to any infraction of the neutrality laws of the United States. A warning couched in these terms would have a very decisive effect upon General Menocal under present conditions.
I beg to request that a copy of this telegram be sent to the President for his information.