837.00/4196: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:10 p.m.]
364. For Caffery. I have just received, through his wife, a message from Dr. Ferrer, Secretary of War in the Céspedes Cabinet, who is now [Page 486] confined as a prisoner in Cabana prison, that the authorities are circulating among all of the officers in prison a letter which has been drafted by Octavio Seigle, a paid propagandist for the Grau San Martín regime, and which the officers are requested to sign declaring that the assembling of the officers in the National Hotel and their conduct subsequent thereto was due to my instigation. Dr. Ferrer has sent me word that most of the officers have disregarded the communication but it is to be presumed that some of them, in order to get in the good graces of the present authorities, will probably sign the letter. This is merely one of a long series of allegations regarding me published by the adherents of the present government and concocted in each instance without even a shred of fact upon which to base them. They have included charges that I was conspiring with various revolutionary leaders; that I had engaged in an attempt to foment a revolution in Piñar del Río Province and as recently as this morning that I was being bribed by the American Sugar Refining Company and by the National City Bank.
The present effort, however, is more plausible in that by obtaining the signatures of a few officers to such a declaration the charge will probably meet with a certain amount of belief both in Cuba and in the United States. I consequently suggest that you discuss the matter with the Secretary and if he concurs advise the press that the Department is aware of the effort which is being made to involve the Embassy in the action taken by the officers last month and that the Embassy’s position in the matter has already been made clear by the Department.
The charge is as ludicrous as it is unfounded. It is only possible for me to reiterate that I never had any connection with any of the officers at any time and that with the exception of Colonel Sanguily whom I have not seen since August 13th, the day after that upon which the Céspedes Government came into power, I do not even know personally any of the officers who were in the National Hotel. The only other officer whom I knew, who was in the National Hotel, was Dr. Ferrer himself and my acquaintance with him was due to his service as Secretary of War. Once he took refuge in the National Hotel I never communicated with him in any manner and the Department is fully informed in every detail of my conversations with him prior to that time.
I do not believe there is any way in which this extremely vicious attack can be prevented from gaining credence except through a statement by the Department in the sense indicated.