837.00/3567: Telegram

The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Acting Secretary of State

103. My telegram No. 101, June 30, 4 p.m. I formally declared mediation proceedings commenced this morning. I received in the Embassy the delegates of the Government at 10 a.m. and the delegates of the opposition at 11 a.m. I read the President’s message to both groups. It was received with the most enthusiastic approval. The declaration of the President is of peculiar value in that it makes definitively clear the President’s personal interest in the success of these negotiations.

I subsequently read a statement emphasizing the fact that my tender of good offices would not have been made if I had not previously clearly understood that my services were desired by both sides in the controversy. A copy in full of my statement will be sent by mail.

On Monday I shall hold a meeting of the delegates of the opposition to determine the agenda and to exchange preliminary views. I have arranged for a meeting of the governmental delegates on Tuesday for the same general purpose. I am happy to state that there is very evident on both sides not only a conciliatory disposition but an apparent feeling of expectancy that these negotiations will have a successful outcome.

The opposition factions are already splitting into two groups, one extremely radical; and the other, the larger group, decidedly conservative. In the former category is of course the A B C which is composed very largely of radicals. Fortunately however the representatives of that organization are both intelligent and well-disposed and I am hopeful that for some weeks at least the organization can be kept in line.

Welles