837.00/3594: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 7:48 p.m.]
122. I had a private interview with the President yesterday afternoon. The President commenced his conversation by referring to his addresses to the Senate and to the House of last week and expressed his regret for certain portions of them. He stated that almost invariably when he spoke in public he made statements which he did [Page 333] not intend. Since the truth of this assertion on the part of the President is very obvious and since it was evidently his desire to terminate the incident with this expression of regret I made no reference thereto beyond expressing my appreciation of the fact that he had referred to me as “a friend of the Cuban people”.
President Machado voiced his concern over the disorder which was occurring in so many parts of the Republic and expressed his deep appreciation of the fact that I had succeeded in having the leaders of all of the opposition factions issue a joint manifesto urging the groups which they represented to hold no public meetings or parades under present conditions in order to avoid disturbances. I told the President that I felt it would be easier to maintain tranquility and to avoid regrettable incidents like those which occurred during the preceding 2 days such as the death of a woman Communist demonstrator and the ill treatment of school teachers by the police, if the police were given the most stringent orders not to interfere with public demonstrations unless the demonstrators were injuring private property or assaulting the authorities. There are a great many rumors to the effect that certain members of the Government who are bitterly opposed to the mediation proceedings, notably Doctor Zubizarreta, the Secretary of Gobernación, are utilizing the secret police to stir up these popular demonstrations and are trying to obtain a general strike throughout the Republic which would presumably result in such disorder that the Government would once more be obliged to declare a state of martial law. I have as yet however absolutely no evidence to confirm these rumors.
In my conference with the President and in an earlier conference which I had yesterday with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is the leader of libels [Liberal?] Party in the lower House, both of them stated that the Congress would unquestionably ratify any agreement which was entered into under my auspices by the Government, the political parties and the opposition leaders provided such agreement made it possible for the President to resign his office in a “decorous” manner such as the institution of a Vice-Presidency would be. Both stated unequivocally that they realized that the President would have to resign his office immediately after the Vice-President was inaugurated. The Speaker of the House furthermore stated that he would be the first to declare publicly that if the agreement which was to be entered into provided for the shortening of the terms of all of the present members of the Senate and House to the date of the next national elections he would be willing to make such a sacrifice but he stated very positively that he felt it would be extremely difficult to obtain the consent of all of his colleagues in the House of [Page 334] Representatives to the same action and said that he hoped for a compromise on this point.
The meetings of the Mixed Commission composed of the members of the political parties and the delegates of the opposition are proceeding in a highly satisfactory and expeditious manner. The delegates are at present discussing the advisability of limiting materially the powers of the executive and are agreed unanimously upon the prohibition of reelection of all executive officials.