Office of the Historian

837.61351/3762: Telegram

The Ambassador in Cuba (Braden) to the Secretary of State

Habana, March 19, 1943—2 p.m.
[Received 3:48 p.m.]

163. I suggest that López Castro be informed that in view of the failure of the Cuban Government to promulgate the decrees covering respectively sugar-loading conditions87 and railroad rates,88 we are not in a position to sign the crop sale contract.

As the Department knows assurances in the premises were made weeks ago, fulfillment has been clearly understood to be an integral part of the over-all arrangement, and I have repeatedly urged the Prime Minister to act. The failure of the Cuban Government to take action has already largely vitiated the benefit in so far as the 1942 carryover is concerned, that is, we have shipped at last year’s rates over half a million tons and propose in any case not to move through other than natural ports any large proportion of the balance. Moreover 1943 sugars are now ready to move.

Braden

[The purchase agreement on the 1943 Cuban sugar crop was signed in Habana on April 3, 1943, by Prime Minister Zaydín, José M. Casanova,89 and Gastón Godoy, representing the Cuban Sugar Stabilization Institute, and by Ambassador Braden for the Commodity Credit Corporation. This agreement (not printed) covered the procurement, inland transportation, warehousing, insuring, testing, financing, and shipment of 2,700,000 English short tons of raw sugar purchased outright at 2.65 cents per pound, f.o.b.90 in Cuban ports, and provided for the purchase of additional sugar by special option and of 7,970,558 gallons or less of high test sugar syrups.]

  1. In despatch No. 2626, March 31, the Ambassador informed the Department that Decree No. 892 satisfactorily covering sugar loading conditions was promulgated in the Gaceta Oficial of March 24, 1943. A copy of the decree was transmitted with the despatch (837.61351/3800).↩
  2. Decree No. 1252, promulgated in the Gaceta Oficial of April 22, 1943, implemented a commitment made in the exchange of notes at the time the 1943 sugar contract was signed, namely to reduce by about 50 percent the cost to the United States Government of moving purchased sugar within Cuba.↩
  3. Chairman of the National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba and member of the Board of the Institute.↩
  4. The expression “f.o.b.” (free on board) means, in this agreement, “free alongside vessel within reach of ship’s tackle,” in accordance with the usual practice in the Cuban sugar trade.↩