837.00/4156: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:12 a.m.]
350. The negotiations for a concentration government are momentarily seriously complicated by the reports Finlay has given of his alleged conversation in the Department of State and by the hope on the part of the students that the propaganda in which they are now engaged in the United States will meet with favorable response.
All of the powerful party leaders, namely, those of the Unión Nacional, A. B. C., O. C. R. R., Gómez and Menocal have agreed unanimously to support Mendieta as their spokesman and to urge him to accept the Provisional Presidency. It is their belief that should he be willing to make this sacrifice, since it is recognized by all elements that in national elections he would be elected to the constitutional Presidency by a sweeping majority, he would have the confidence of all elements in the political and business world and that his great popularity in the interior would be of immediate avail in checking unrest in the agricultural districts. He furthermore possesses the entire confidence of Batista and is not personally opposed by the students. Negotiations in this sense proceeded yesterday very rapidly and apparently successfully until the Finlay reports began to be given credence by the Student Directorate in its session last night. As a result the conference adjourned this morning without any further action.
[Page 480]In his desire to appoint three individuals of previous connections with the parties of the existing opposition Grau San Martín has encountered an obstacle in the unwillingness of Batista to agree to the changes indicated. The latter has sent me word tonight that he has felt it necessary to postpone his conference with Mendieta for a 48 hour period since some of the students have been busy circulating reports today that if a new government was formed it would at once request the United States to land Marines to disarm the Cuban Army. In the excited condition of the soldiers this rumor, together with reports resulting from Finlay’s conversations with the students as to the imminence of recognition by the United States, has necessarily had a prejudicial effect and Batista quite rightly fears that conferences between himself and Mendieta would be misconstrued by a portion of the soldiers.
As a result of the failure of the Directorate to take action the three professors they had selected to act as their delegates have refused to serve.
In estimating the manner in which public opinion is lined up at the moment, the following is an accurate summary: All of the political parties, all of the commercial and financial groups, a majority of the university professors, a probable majority of the university students outside of the Directorate are insistent upon the need for the creation of a concentration government. Batista with the presumed support of the Army is pressing for a change satisfactory to all in the existing government. Grau San Martín is determined to retain the Presidency and the Student Directorate is divided.
The feeling as to the likelihood of a favorable solution is generally optimistic. I am doubtful, however, after the complications which occurred today, that any change will be decided upon in the immediate future.