Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912

File No. 437.00/38.

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister.

No. 102.]

Department of State,
Washington, June 24, 1912.

Sir: Referring to previous correspondence [etc.] you are informed that some days ago the French Ambassador called at the Department requesting that this Government suggest to the Government of Cuba the desirability of arbitrating the fundamental question as to the liability of the Cuban Government in this respect.

For your information the Department encloses a copy of a memorandum of the conversation which took place between the Secretary and the French Ambassador, wherein the Secretary promised the Ambassador to advise Cuba that it was the view of this Government that the fundamental question should be arbitrated, and that he would inform Mr. Sanguily what the Ambassador had said in favor of arbitrating at The Hague.

You are instructed to convey the substance of the entire memorandum of conversation to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to report to the Department the result of this action.

I am [etc.]

Huntington Wilson.

[Inclosure.—Memorandum.]

[Untitled]

My conversation with the French Ambassador about the arbitration of the English, French and German claims against Cuba for damages arising during the Cuban insurrection was this:

I told him that this Government’s opinion had been asked by the Cuban Government as to whether the Cuban Government should agree to submit these claims to arbitration. I told the Ambassador that this Government would advise the Cuban Government to arbitrate the fundamental question as to whether under the rules of international law Cuba was responsible for the damages that occurred during the revolution, under the peculiar circumstances surrounding the birth of the Cuban Republic, and that I had intimated to Mr. Sanguily in Habana that that was a question which should be arbitrated. I told the Ambassador that Mr. Sanguily had said that if they were willing to arbitrate that question they would not want to take it to The Hague because while he himself did not share the opinion, yet it was undoubtedly the opinion of the majority of the Cuban people that France, Germany and Great Britain would stand a better chance in the Hague Court than Cuba, and besides Mr. Sanguily said the expenses of an arbitration at the Hague were so great he, Sanguily, thought it would be better if the question were arbitrated to submit it to some distinguished jurist or jurists who might be agreed upon.

The Ambassador replied that he believed that Cuba would stand even a better chance at The Hague than the European powers and asked me to say so to Mr. Sanguily. My promise to the Ambassador was that I would advise Cuba that it was the view of this Government that the fundamental question should be arbitrated and would state to Mr. Sanguily what he, the Ambassador, had said in favor of arbitration at The Hague.