837.51/393
The Minister in Cuba ( Long ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 23.]
Sir: I have the honor to state that Mr. Albert Rathbone arrived last Monday, after which he interviewed the President of Cuba, and laid plans to investigate and report on the best solution for Cuba’s present urgent economic needs.
On Monday afternoon he met the Bankers in a group and on Tuesday and Wednesday interviewed them separately. By Wednesday night several articles had appeared in the local papers and the atmosphere about the place was foreboding. The general impression was that the Cuban Congress would pass an unsatisfactory law which the President would sign. At no other time during my experience in Cuba have the impressions gained from circumstantial evidence been so strong as they were on last Wednesday just before the Department’s telegram of December 14th, 7 P.M. had been deciphered.
Wednesday evening after dinner, I interviewed several men of extended experience in Cuba, and the impression was that the good offices of Mr. Albert Rathbone would come to nothing and that the Cuban Congress and the President of Cuba would take a step similar to that taken when the amendments to the electoral law were passed.
I therefore wrote to President Menocal early on the morning of December 16th, a letter which contained pertinent portions of the [Page 51] Department’s December 14th, 7 P.M. and took it to him in person. By the time he had gone over it carefully and made some effort to explain that evidently my Government did not understand the bill, Mr. Rathbone arrived. President Menocal requested that I remain during their interview. I did so, and one of the first things that came out in the conference was the statement by President Menocal that the Dolz law was based on the Majority plan recommended by the Bankers, as described in my urgent telegram No. 312 of November 21st, 11 A.M.58
Mr. Rathbone was quick to state that the Bankers had explained to him the conditions under which all of them had hastily formulated the Majority plan, adding that he had just completed a series of interviews with them in which with unmistakable clearness it was asserted that with passing of time and in the light of more careful reflection, their views had been substantially modified.
The President observed that if the Bankers had modified their positions it did not show a very serious attitude unless they gave him some notice of it.
Mr. Rathbone and President Menocal discussed at some length the advisability of disposing of sugars on hand, and the difficulties surrounding Government control. The upshot of the conference was that the President requested Mr. Rathbone to reduce to writing his recommendations of what should now be done.
Immediately after the interview Mr. Rathbone and I had luncheon with Porfirio Franca and Cosme de la Torriente, the former being the General Manager of the National City Bank, the latter an Independent (formerly a Conservative) and now Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate.
It was evident that both of them were out of sympathy with the project of law as prepared by Mr. Dolz. Senator Torriente stated that he expected on Monday to see a special committee assigned to study and report upon a bill which would be calculated to relieve the present financial stress.
It is understood that the Bankers will now prepare a statement reflecting their views as modified since the formation of the Majority Plan, and indications are that it will be in consonance with sound economic principles.
Mr. Rathbone’s recommendations are being typed in final form this afternoon.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩