811.34537/352
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Cuba ( Briggs )
Sir: Reference is made to the Department’s instruction 1131 of December 24, 1941 to Ambassador Messersmith authorizing him to sign an agreement with the Cuban Government regarding a Cuban military zone for joint defense adjacent to the United States Naval Station at Guantánamo on the basis of Draft H enclosed with that instruction.
If this draft meets with the approval of the Cuban Government and if the Cuban Government desires to sign the agreement based on it without awaiting the return of the Ambassador to Habana, the Department herewith authorizes you to sign in behalf of the United States Government.29
You may exhibit this instruction to the appropriate Cuban authorities as your full powers, which however expire upon the return of Ambassador Messersmith to his post.
Yours very truly,
- The agreement was not signed, and the discussions concerning it were indefinitely suspended in April 1942 and supplanted by negotiations concerning emergency landing fields, mobile coast artillery, stationing of troop detachments, etc.↩