837.51/793: Telegram
The Representative on Special Mission in Cuba (Crowder) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:48 p.m.]
33. Reference to my despatch of June 12th which should reach Washington to-day. We are making progress slowly in the reorganization of the Cabinet. Zayas inclined to limit reorganization to three and possibly four departments and to make appointments of members not known to be qualified. Yesterday I returned his amended list of eligibles for appointment to the reorganized Cabinet with comment which included the following:
“The supreme issue of the hour is the moralization of the public administration in all departments and branches of the Government [Page 1034] and along the general line indicated in my memoranda numbers 8 and 10. We all deprecate the talk of intervention, but no one more than myself. Your Excellency and the Congress of Cuba have it in your power to silence that talk in both countries by destroying all justification thereof. This can be easily brought about by the appointment of a Cabinet pledged to the accomplishment of this great task and by the enactment by Congress of certain legislative measures which have already been recommended. Under a patriotic call to duty issued by Your Excellency I feel that, in the present crisis, the best men in Cuba would place their services at your disposal and with adequate assurance of proper support by the Executive, would enter enthusiastically upon the prosecution of their great tasks.
The limited reorganization proposed and the list of eligibles submitted by Your Excellency leads me inevitably to the conclusion that the views herein expressed are not fully shared by Your Excellency”.
While refraining from recommending particular men for appointment I am insisting with great firmness that no man be retained in or appointed to the reorganized Cabinet who is not known to be conspicuously qualified to prosecute aggressively and courageously the important work of moralizing the public administration.