740.00111A.R./1076: Telegram
The Chargé in Cuba (Beaulac) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:07 p.m.]
50. Department’s No. 56, May 15, 6 p.m. The dispositive portion of the decree which Campa has prepared reads as follows in translation: [Page 313]
“1st. Any submarine which has committed a belligerent act within the security zone defined by the Declaration of Panama and which takes refuge in Cuban ports shall be immediately interned with its crew until the end of the war.
“2d. For the purpose of determining the conduct of the Cuban authorities in the application of rules of neutrality the international juridic situation of those countries which without justification have been invaded by one of the belligerent powers in violation of the principles which govern normal relations among peoples is defined as a ‘state of unprovoked invasion’.
“When this [apparent omission] after a study of the special circumstances of the case considers that a given country should be included in the definition to which the preceding paragraph refers all the rules of neutrality shall be applied to it with greater benevolence.”
Campa is disinclined to submit this proposed decree to the Inter-American Neutrality Committee since he considers that the South American representatives on that Committee have a different attitude from that which should be assumed by the North American countries. However he is desirous of working in accord with the United States and has consented not to have this decree and the second one which implements it signed until the United States has had an opportunity to express its views.
Campa foresees the possibility of representations on the part of Germany concerning as [sic] the treatment of Norwegian, Danish and Dutch vessels in Cuba and wants to provide a legal basis for benevolent treatment of such vessels by the Cuban authorities.
He said Doctor Ramos80 was prepared to discuss this general situation with the Department.
- Domingo F. Ramos, Cuban Secretary of Defense.↩