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Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Ambassador in Cuba (Welles), September 5, 1933, 7 p.m.
Secretary: I was just talking with the President and he agrees of course that if you or any of your folks in the Embassy are in physical [Page 387] danger, you should call on the commander to send all possible aid to you ashore.
Ambassador: All right.
Secretary: But if you are not in physical danger, we are inclined to the opinion here that such a small number sent ashore might provoke trouble rather than quiet trouble.
Ambassador: I understand that perfectly. I am quite in accord. I have not sent for them and am not going to unless I consider it absolutely necessary.
Secretary: By the time the battleship, the Mississippi, gets down there, and it is on its way, we can work out some of these other matters. But if we just have fifty men there for the moral effect and not necessarily to protect the Embassy from physical violence we agree with you that it would probably be inadvisable and that we should work out a broader policy on that question.
Ambassador: I quite agree and I do not want to do it unless I cannot possibly help it. And only in an emergency to keep the embassy from being entered.
Secretary: Are the de facto people doing anything to restore order?
Ambassador: I have one in the embassy now talking to me about it.
Secretary: I would make very sweeping demands upon them to protect the embassy and all foreigners.
Ambassador: I am doing that, but as you understand it is absolutely impossible for them to attempt to control things.
Secretary: We will keep in touch with you in every way possible.
Ambassador: Thank you so much. I will not take any steps of that kind unless I believe it absolutely indispensable.
Secretary: Unless there is physical danger to you folks in the Embassy.