810.20 Defense/2639
The Chargé in Cuba (Briggs) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 9.]
Sir: Supplementing recent correspondence on defense matters, I have the honor to transmit a memorandum of a conversation23 between Dr. Cortina, the Minister of State, Mr. Walmsley, and me yesterday, in which the Minister proposed the negotiation of a general agreement on defense matters and the establishment in connection therewith of a small joint military-naval board, Cuba-United States.
The proposed agreement would supplement the agreements reached during the staff conversations in September, 1940.24 It is the Minister’s suggestion that it would be in general terms, each country agreeing to accord the other full use of its facilities. The agreement would be intended to obviate the necessity of requests for the use of such facilities (which requests have been somewhat numerous since last December), substituting therefor notification from one Government to the other.
As of interest in the foregoing connection, there is also enclosed a list of the requests made of the Cuban Government23 since the entry of the United States and Cuba into the war.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩
- See despatch No. 732, September 3, 1940, from the Ambassador in Cuba, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. v, p. 99.↩
- Not printed.↩