[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Ambassador in Cuba (Wright)
I delivered yesterday to the Secretary of State at 12 o’clock our
Note No. 250, which is textually identical with the draft enclosed
in the Department’s instruction No. 1091 of August 25, 1939. As
Ambassador Martínez Fraga was with the Secretary of State at that
time, I deemed it wiser to leave these gentlemen to a discussion of
the Note in question rather than to attempt to discuss it with them
at that time. It was understood that we would have a further
conversation at 11 o’clock this morning.
At 11 o’clock this morning I called at the Cuban Department of State
and found that Ambassador Martínez Fraga was detained elsewhere. The
Secretary said that he was compelled to observe that although Cuba
would have fulfilled a part of her undertaking with us, if and when
the legislation for the “Obligaciones” were passed, there was no
indication that the Government of the United States was bound to
fulfill her portion of the agreement: deeming it wiser to overlook
the intimation of lack of good faith on our part contained
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in his remark, I stated
that—as had been set forth in the Note which I delivered to him
yesterday—there had been no question of any written commitment or
agreement on our part, save the assurance which I trusted that he
and his Government had always accepted that we would immediately
undertake the examination of the public works project and the
extension of the other means of financial support and advice. This
was, however, predicated upon the fulfillment of the conditions
enumerated in my Note of July 20.
The Secretary said—as Batista has intimated to me many times
before—that he would have to have something to exhibit to the people
of Cuba in return for the passage of the “Obligaciones”. He then
handed me the attached draft of a proposed statement to the
press50 intended
for publication should the “Obligaciones” be passed by both Houses
of Congress and signed by the President, and requested an expression
of my opinion thereon. After reading it hurriedly, I informed him
that there was no possibility that my Government would acquiesce in
the statement therein concerning any agreement to contribute toward
the Stabilization Fund, and I added that the position of my
Government had been made additionally clear in the telegram51 which Mr. Welles had
sent to Ambassador Martínez Fraga through me, and which I had also
allowed the Secretary to read: I therefore suggested that he
definitively exclude from the draft those words which referred to
such an alleged agreement.
With regard to the allusion to the $50,000,000 credit, I said that I
thought the time had come for me to inquire where and at what time
that figure had arisen: the Secretary made the astounding reply that
he really did not know, but that he had understood that such was the
extent of the credits intended. I said—as emphatically as I
could—that there was no ground whatsoever for any such figure or,
for that matter, of any specified figures; that we had ignored its
continued appearance in the press of Cuba because it hardly seemed
worthwhile to deny it; but that I could state categorically that
there was no ground for the mention of such sum—no matter what was
the origin of the rumor. The Secretary thereupon suggested that the
figure be struck from the draft: I said that would be the best
method of at last putting an end to such a rumor.
I then said that I would have to submit the proposed draft to my
Government which I undertook to do by telephone—stating that I hoped
to inform him tomorrow of such instructions as I might receive.
I thereupon called Mr. Briggs52 by telephone and acquainted him in the sense
of the foregoing. He called me at 4 o’clock in order to communicate
to me a corrected draft to which the Government of the United States
would have no objection, provided that the Public
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Works Bill were passed by both Houses
of Congress and signed by the President.
He reminded me that there were other conditions specified in our Note
of July 20th which remain to be complied with. I told Mr. Briggs
that I was continually aware of that fact and was convinced that if
and when the Bill were passed, this Government would immediately
request and expect a gesture upon our part. I said that the
extension of the Export-Import Bank credits had been originally
dependent upon the passage of the Public Works Bill, but that the
situation had become further aggravated by recent legislation to a
point where these additional matters had been specified in my Note
of July 20th. I told him, however, that the Revaluation Bill now
appeared to be taking second place, that I believed that continued
representations which had been made by all interested parties were
having some effect, and that there was a good chance that the
measure would be greatly modified or made finally to conform to our
observations; that the Monetary Law merely awaited the inclusion of
the Regulations in an amended law in order to comply without
representations in the matter—in addition to the elimination of the
retroactive feature which had been advocated by the interested
banks; that the Tax Bill—although not forming a part of the
situation of which we had complained—constituted a serious menace to
American interests but was understood to have already undergone the
deletion of a large number of its objectionable features.
In other words, these three measures might fall, largely of their own
weight: in view whereof I ventured to recommend that if and when the
Obligations were definitively out of the way, we might proceed to
the next step, which would be the designation of an engineer of the
Export-Import Bank who would immediately come to Cuba to examine the
possibilities for the extension of credits for productive public
works. I said that such elasticity of interpretation might save us
the embarrassment of reiterated accusations of lack of good faith
and that I believed that such an undertaking would not necessarily
commit us to definite action, unless or until the other requirements
had been fulfilled by Cuba.
Mr. Briggs stated that the suggestion was worthy of consideration and
that it would be immediately taken under advisement.
