File No. 811.34537/54.
The Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your dispatch No. 700, of March 25, 1911.
[Page 121]In reply to that portion of Mr. Sanguily’s note in which he refers to the claim for expenses incurred during the military occupation of 1906–1909, you will accordingly hand the Cuban secretary of state the following aide mémoire:
Replying to the inquiry of the Cuban Government as to the release of Cuba by the President from any liability for the expeditures made by this Government in connection with the maintenance of the military forces of the United States in Cuba during the last intervention, it should be said that inasmuch as the Congress of the United States has never directed the President to make a demand upon Cuba for reimbursement of the expenditures by the Government of the United States, and inasmuch as the Executive has never made any demand or set forth any claim against the Government of Cuba for such expenditures, it would seem wisest to refrain from agitating the question at this time and meanwhile to permit the matter to rest where it now is.
The Department hopes that with this information and that contained in the Department’s instruction No. 2771 of this date you will be enabled to expedite the completion of the negotiations for the extension of the naval station at Guantánamo.
I am, etc.,