837.00/3579: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 12:50 p.m.]
112. The President at my request late Saturday evening decreed the abolition of the censorship of the press. Of their own initiative the editors and proprietors of every newspaper and magazine published in Habana had previously given me their written assurance that until such time as a press law which is now pending in Congress is passed, their publications would not publish any material which might tend to disturb public order or interfere with the successful course of the mediation negotiations. The press law referred to has been drafted with a view to the suggestions made by the opposition delegates.
The one obstacle that prevents the immediate reestablishment of full constitutional guarantees lies in the fear of the President that once the guarantees are reestablished members of the opposition will at once bring suits in the civil courts against the members of his [Page 323] administration based upon occurrences which have taken place here since the winter of March 1931 when martial law was first declared. There appears to be no manner in which this danger can be eliminated except through the immediate passage of a general amnesty bill which would necessarily have to include all members of the Government as well as those members of the opposition who have been found guilty of offenses against the authorities and who have not been pardoned. There will be necessarily violent objection on the part of some of the opposition factions to such whitewashing of officials of the Government but all of the more moderate members of the opposition are in favor of such a measure as the easiest way out of the difficulty in view of their realization that an amnesty bill of this character will in any event inevitably be passed sooner or later.