837.00/3884: Telegram

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

258. The Grau San Martín Government this evening issued a long proclamation which appears to be a combination of a program of procedure and a temporary constitution. The two most important paragraphs are the following:

“Since the Provisional Government would incur grave responsibility if it abandoned the security of power to seditious ambitions it may temporarily subordinate individual rights to a system of governmental correction and control of whose use account will be given to the Constituent Assembly.”

“With full realization of its historic responsibility the Provisional Government declares its profound respect for the sanctity of those international treaties spontaneously entered into in the name of the Republic of Cuba and its firm and decided intention of complying with them to satisfy the revolutionary purposes which gave lire to its organization.”

In my judgment the use of the word “spontaneously” in this context clearly implies the intention of denouncing the permanent treaty with the United States.

Full text will be sent by air mail.

Welles