Office of the Historian

837.51 Cooperation Program/1: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Cuba (Beaulac)

Washington, September 19, 1940—4 p.m.

153. Your 110, September 17, 9 a.m.74 Please express to Secretary of State Campa my personal gratification at the final disposition of the gold obligations matter. This action clears the ground for the study by both Governments of a comprehensive program of cooperation principally along economic lines. In order that a decision may be reached as rapidly as possible regarding the items to be included in that program, please suggest to Campa that the Department would welcome the designation by the Cuban Government of two or three distinguished experts who could proceed to Washington in the near future for the purpose of initiating preliminary discussions. It is the Department’s plan to submit to these experts the items of the program which have been suggested as a result of the Department’s study of the situation and to receive from them those items which the Cuban Government believes might usefully be included. You should emphasize to Campa the Department’s desire that these discussions as well as the program, which may finally be adopted, should be comprehensive and not limited to a single phase of Cuban-American economic relations.

You should indicate tactfully to Campa that in view of the fact that you have submitted the above suggestions, which, if adopted by the Cuban Government, will provide for a full and constructive discussion [Page 780] of problems of mutual interest, the Department plans to make no specific reply to the two communications which it has received from Ambassador Martínez Fraga regarding the negotiation of a loan.75

You are authorized in your discretion to seek an interview with Batista and indicate to him the substance of the above.

It is the Department’s hope that the experts selected by the Cuban Government for the preliminary discussion will be persons of the type of Montoulieu, López Castro,76 or Oscar Garcia Montes77 and you should therefore emphasize the need for technical qualifications as well as a broad background of practical experience in economic matters.

Hull
  1. Ante, p. 762.↩
  2. In addition to the memorandum of August 29, 1940, p. 772, the Cuban Embassy presented a project of a law concerning the proposed loan and a memorandum justifying the loan on September 2, 1940 (837.51/2655).↩
  3. Amadeo López Castro, former Secretary of Agriculture and of the Treasury.↩
  4. Former Secretary of the Treasury.↩