837.00/4349: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:32 p.m.]
436. My 434, November 7, noon. The President and Secretary of the Cuban Red Cross Dr. Angulo, and Señor Victor Mendoza, who in that capacity have access daily to the Cuban officers who are imprisoned or in the hospitals, have just visited me to state that they have been requested by the officer body to inform me of the profound indignation caused the officers as a whole by the letters published in the Alma Mater this morning. The officers in the hospitals are already signing a letter to be published in the Diario de la Marina tomorrow denying absolutely the insinuations and charges made in the letters published this morning, and such of the officers as are imprisoned who are enabled to do so will likewise sign this denial.
Dr. Angulo told me that two of the officers who signed the letters published this morning told him today that they had done so under false pretenses. Dr. Angulo further stated that Octavio Seigle had visited the hospitals on October 12th and on October 14th … in order to obtain further signatures to charges of this character and had been unable to do so.
Dr. Angulo was likewise requested to state to me that the officers as a whole were confident that a monetary inducement had been used in two of the five cases where signatures were obtained.