837.00/6104a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Cuba (Caffery)
24. From Welles. Referring to our telephone conversation of this morning, the Department will give to the press this afternoon for release in tomorrow morning’s newspapers the following statement:
“It has come to the attention of the Department of State that reports have been circulated during recent weeks in Cuba, with regard to the national elections which the Cuban Government has announced will be held to provide for the passage from the existing system of provisional government to that of a constitutional government, that the Government of the United States favors the participation in such elections of certain political groups or parties to the exclusion of others.
“The new Treaty of Relations between the United States and Cuba concluded on May 29, 1934,1 which replaced the Treaty of 1903,2 abolished the special relationship previously existing between our two countries. The consummation of the present Treaty of Relations has made it emphatically clear that this Government will not intervene directly or indirectly in the political concerns of the Cuban people. It consequently neither favors nor opposes the participation in Cuba’s national elections of any particular party or group. It does hope sincerely, however, because of the peculiarly close friendship existing between our two peoples that when national elections are held the result thereof may represent the effective will of the Cuban people, freely expressed.
“The great benefits immediately derived from the Trade Agreement3 between the United States and Cuba, to the common advantage of the American and Cuban peoples, and the other benefits accruing to the Republic of Cuba from the economic policy pursued by this Government during the past two years have given practical and convincing proof of the sincerity of the desire of this Administration to assist Cuba to regain national prosperity. The continuing reports which the Department of State has received of the rapid strides which Cuba has made towards economic and social rehabilitation have caused [Page 477] the Government of the United States the deepest gratification. It is this Government’s most earnest hope that this encouraging trend may neither be retarded nor blocked by any failure on the part of the Cuban political parties and groups to agree upon those measures of electoral procedure necessary to insure the orderly return by the Republic of Cuba to representative government.”
It would seem desirable in order to insure accuracy in translation of this statement by the Cuban press that translations be prepared by the Embassy itself and given to the Cuban newspapers. [Welles.]
- Foreign Relations, 1934, vol. v, p. 183.↩
- Signed May 22, 1903, ibid., 1904, p. 243.↩
- Signed August 24, 1934; see ibid., 1934, vol. v, pp. 108 ff.↩