837.00/4152: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:07 a.m.]
349. For Caffery. Negotiations today have been materially handicapped by the return of Finlay who has alleged to Grau San Martín that you stated to him that the inclusion in the Cabinet of three individuals of the opposition parties would bring immediate recognition of the United States. Grau is consequently thinking of appointing individuals who have in the past been connected with the opposition groups but who have been identified with the student movement since the overthrow of Céspedes and who have no support whatever from the parties to which they used to belong.
I have, of course, denied any such commitment by the Department. It would be helpful, however, at once if you would cable me that your discussion with Finlay was predicated on the support of parties [Page 479] or groups for a concentration government and in no sense upon the appointment to office of individuals who were not representative of the parties to which they formerly belonged.