Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The American Republics, Volume VII

837.82/28

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

No. 6080

Habana, February 22, 1944.
[Received February 26.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instructions no. 2683 of December 22, 1943³ (file no. 837.82/25 [24] and no. 2907 of February 17, 1944, with regard to the possible transfer to the Cuban Government at the end of the war of aids to navigation installed in Cuban waters by the United States Coast Guard. It has been observed from these instructions that the Navy Department does not feel that it has the authority to relinquish or abandon these aids to navigation at the end of the war. However, the Navy Department’s communication⁶ enclosed with the Department’s instruction no. 2683 suggests that the objective recommended in the Embassy’s despatch no. 4247 of August 23, 1943⁷ might be accomplished if a directive were issued by the Department of State.

The Embassy, the Naval Attaché,⁸ the Chief of the Naval Mission⁹ and the local representative of the War Shipping Administration¹⁰ feel that these aids to navigation should be left at the respective Cuban harbors after the termination of the war and that no compensation should be requested from the Cuban Government. The reasons for this recommendation are the following:

1. The lights and buoys have been installed at the request of the United States Government to assist United States shipping which, in turn, is being used to remove sugar and strategic materials belonging to the United States Government. It has developed that the Cuban Government had made application for lights, buoys and other equipment to carry out this work but had been unable to obtain the necessary priorities due to the short supply of such equipment.

2. Nuevitas Bay (and presumably also Manzanillo harbor) would be left without any aids to navigation if those now being installed by the Coast Guard were removed at the end of the war. At a meeting in Habana on August 21, 1943 between an official of the Cuban Navy and a representative of the United States Coast Guard, the latter requested permission to remove such lights and buoys as were then functioning in Nuevitas Bay in order that the entire service might be operated with new equipment from the United States. Colonel Aguila¹¹ of the Cuban Navy granted this request. If Nuevitas Bay and other harbors of Cuba were left without any aids to navigation on the termination of the war, the United States would be subject to severe criticism on the part of the Cuban people.

3. The Cuban Government has made property available for the installation of lights on shore and has resolved all property questions with private owners at Nuevitas and Manzanillo. The Cuban Government has also made wharfage space available for the use of the United States Navy in the maintenance of these aids to navigation for the period of the war.

If the necessary directive envisaged by the communication from the Navy Department is issued by the Department of State, the Embassy will advise the Cuban Government that the aids to navigation are to remain in Cuban harbors after the termination of the war.

Respectfully yours,

Spruille Braden

3. Not printed.
6. Letter dated December 9, 1943, from the Secretary of the Navy (Knox), not printed.
7. Not printed.
8. Lt. Col. John N. Hart, U.S.M.C.
9. Capt. Gerard F. Galpin.
10. M. L. Wilcox, Director of Caribbean District.
11. Presumably Commodore Aguila Ruiz.