810.20 Defense/816/12
The Ambassador in Cuba ( Messersmith ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 19.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s strictly confidential circular telegram to Chiefs of Mission, dated July 11, 4 p.m.,37 with reference to the recent informal conversations undertaken by officers of the United States Army and Navy in various capitals of the American Republics.
I called on the President of Cuba on July 13, and brought to his attention the contents of the Department’s telegram under reference and did not fail to convey to him an expression of the gratification of our Government that the preliminary conversations with Cuba and the other American States so fully conform to the spirit of solidarity existing among the American States.
The President, Dr. Laredo Brú, expressed his appreciation of the information which my Government had transmitted to him with respect to these conversations and his gratification that the conversations had been found in every case successful. He indicated that the appropriate Cuban authorities would be prepared to continue the conversations whenever we took the initiative which, I informed him, would be after the end of the Habana Conference of Foreign Ministers and most likely early in August.
I asked the President whether he wished me to communicate the information in this telegram to other officers of the Cuban Government, and he suggested that I communicate it to Dr. Ramos, the Secretary of National Defense, and to Secretary of State, Dr. Campa, and, if I so wished, to Colonel Pedraza, the head of the Army. As Dr. Ramos happened to be in the Palace at the time I saw the President, the President called him in and I conveyed the contents of the telegram under reference to Dr. Ramos in the presence of the President. It so happened that the Secretary of State, Dr. Campa, was also in the Palace at the time and I conveyed to him later the same afternoon the information in this telegram. All of them expressed [Page 98] themselves as gratified with the results of the conversations here and elsewhere, and the desire of the Cuban Government to continue them when we took the initiative.
As Colonel Pedraza, the head of the Cuban Army, had been present during the conversations which were held with the representatives of the Army and of the Navy when in Habana, and as Colonel Pedraza was most helpful in his attitude during these conversations, I shall, as a matter of courtesy, seek an early opportunity to convey the contents of the telegram under reference to him.
I did not fail in bringing this telegram to the attention of the above-mentioned members of the Cuban Government to convey our desire and hope that the arrangements for, and proceedings of, these bipartite conversations should be maintained in the strictest confidence. They assured me that they shared this desire and that the confidential character of the conversations would be maintained.
I shall, at any time, on the receipt of appropriate instructions be very glad to facilitate the continuance of these conversations between the officers of our Army and Navy and the appropriate officials of the Cuban Government.
Respectfully yours,