837.00/3778: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Cuba (Welles)
90. Your 206 September 7, noon. We fully appreciate the various viewpoints set forth in your telegram. However, after mature consideration, the President has decided to send you the following message:
“We feel very strongly that any promise, implied or otherwise, relating to what the United States will do under any circumstances is impossible; that it would be regarded as a breach of neutrality, as favoring one faction out of many, as attempting to set up a government which would be regarded by the whole world, and especially throughout Latin America, as a creation and creature of the American Government.”
The President’s conversations with the ABCM representatives42 have received widespread approval in the United States and throughout Latin America and any action contrary to the policy outlined therein would have disastrous effects.
The above does not mean, of course, that you should do anything to block or in the least affect any movement by any faction; in other words, strict neutrality is of the essence.
All of us appreciate the heavy load you are carrying and hope you may bear up well in order to get the best possible results in these trying circumstances.
- Representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.↩