611.3731/2132

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Cuba ( Wright )

No. 1091

Sir: The receipt is acknowledged of your despatches nos. 2306 and 2314 of August 17, 1939,47 with reference to the note of August 17 from the Cuban Secretary of State, concerning the possible announcement of a suspension of negotiations for a supplemental trade agreement with Cuba.

The Department is in agreement with the conclusion set forth in the memorandum48 enclosed with your despatch no. 2314 to the effect that this Government should not accede to the suggestion for a joint statement contained in the aforementioned note. There is enclosed herewith a draft of a note to be presented to the Cuban Secretary of State setting forth the reasons of this Government for rejecting this suggestion. You are authorized to make such changes in the wording of this draft as, in your opinion, appear desirable in the light of the local situation.

Very truly yours,

Sumner Welles
[Page 545]
[Enclosure]

Draft of Note To Be Presented to the Cuban Secretary of State (Angel Campa)49

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of August 17, no. 1417, in reply to my note of August 15 in which I informed you that the Government of the United States had fixed the 31st of August, 1939, as the date on which, in the absence of the developments described in my note of July 20, a public announcement will be made to the effect that negotiations for a supplementary trade agreement between our two Governments have been indefinitely suspended.

Your Excellency’s note expresses the hope that recent conversations between the Ambassador of Cuba in Washington and the Under Secretary of State of the United States have cleared the way to a satisfactory solution of all the problems cordially examined by both Governments and refers to the situation created by this Government’s note of August 15, at the same time reiterating the stand taken in Your Excellency’s note of July 23.

Your Excellency’s note also contains a suggestion, made in fulfillment of instructions from the President of the Republic of Cuba, for the making of “simultaneous declarations on the part of both Governments in which they would announce at once their cordial intentions contained in the plan of economic cooperation already agreed upon, which the Government of Cuba is prepared, as far as concerns that part which devolves upon it, to carry out immediately and in a formal manner”.

This suggestion implies that there is in existence an agreement for economic cooperation between the two Governments involving mutual obligations. I wish to reiterate what I have frequently stated to Your Excellency and to other officials of the Cuban Government to the effect that no agreement of this nature is in existence or could be arrived at until the Cuban Government shall have taken steps to restore its international credit, including the discharging of those recognized obligations toward American citizens which have frequently been discussed with Your Excellency and which were described in my note of July 20.

It is only after these steps have been taken by the Government of Cuba that my Government will be in a position to translate into positive action its frequently expressed willingness to cooperate in economic matters with Your Excellency’s Government, the first step in such cooperation being a careful study of the possibilities of the situation and of the specific proposals which Your Excellency’s Government may wish to advance.

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With reference to the penultimate paragraph of your note, I wish to point out that the obligations of the Cuban Government to which you refer existed prior to the discussions last November of the possibility of a plan of economic cooperation between the two Governments and that the binding effect of these obligations upon the Cuban Government could in no way have been strengthened by, or much less made contingent upon, the implementation of the expressed willingness of this Government to extend credits for a self-liquidating program of public works in Cuba or to negotiate a supplementary trade agreement.

Very truly yours,

  1. Neither printed.
  2. Not printed.
  3. Presented by the Ambassador in Cuba as note No. 250, August 28, 1939.