837.61351/3537
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Duggan)52
I call to your attention the attached airgram53 from our Embassy [Page 152] at Habana regarding the sugar negotiations, which I think you will wish to read in its entirety.
These negotiations appear to have been singularly unsuccessful in convincing the representatives of the Cuban sugar industry of the justice of the proposal advanced by this Government.54
It is interesting to observe that the Cuban Government representatives neither supported nor rejected the views of the industry as expressed at the meeting with President Batista.55
The situation boils down to the fact that the Cuban Government is being so strongly pressured by a special-interest group that it is unable to deal with the problem on the merits. The question confronting this Government is how far should we depart from a proposal which in its broad outline is equitable in order to permit the Cuban Government to satisfy the large appetites of the sugar interests. This is a very real problem because it is other United States Government agencies which are putting up the money in this deal. If our “final” offer is to be substantially improved I believe very careful thought should be given as to the best way to obtain the acquiescence of the agencies which will be required to advance greater funds of money.
- Addressed to the Secretary of State and to the Under Secretary (Welles).↩
- Not printed.↩
- For text of the proposal of December 17, 1942, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, p. 339.↩
- A meeting held from 9 p.m., January 10, to 3:30 a.m., January 11, at the Presidential Palace, attended by President Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, Prime Minister Ramón Zaydín, Minister of State José A. Martínez-Viademonte, President of the National Development Commission Amadeo López Castro, Garcia Montes (presumably Oscar García Montes, former Minister of Finance), and three representatives of the sugar industry, members of the Cuban Sugar Commission recently returned from Washington.↩