711.372/11–2248: Airgram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Butler) to the Secretary of State
A–1319. For the information of the Department I quote below from a memorandum of conversation prepared following a meeting with the Minister of State on November 20:
“We had a talk regarding the Friendship and Navigation Treaty. He told me that it was going to be very difficult to get this through due to the political ramifications and the fact that it had been battered about by the Cuban press and politicians. He said he was giving it a good deal of consideration and he felt that his procedure would be that he would write us a letter stating that he is not interested in entering into the Treaty, but he would be interested in entering into some other kind of convention or other treaties that would incorporate practically the same thing as the Friendship and Navigation Treaty itself at the present time and he was working along these lines with his people. He said that he was anxious to have Ambassador Guell1 work on this and that Guell is tied up at the present time, but that this is the first order of business. He said that the President himself is in favor of the principles of the Treaty, but, due to political reasons, he feels that he should not enter into the Treaty which bears the present name. He feels that to do so would cause the Cubans to turn it down; to enter into some other kind of treaty as outlined above would take the stigma off it due to the fact that it had been so vehemently opposed, that by going back and making suggestions to us to be incorporated under other names would get the desired effect that we wish.
“He brought up whether or not they could incorporate some kind of agreement on a quota for sugar. I informed him that I did not think this is the place to do it. He said that when he went to Washington he would take up with the President some kind of quota arrangement for sugar for the future.”
- Gonzalo Güell, Cuban Ambassador to Mexico.↩