Farewell to Welles

Not in decades has a U. S. Ambassador been withdrawn amid such withering blasts of criticism as huffed and puffed in Havana last week when lean, bland, Socialite Sumner Welles, jauntily swinging his cane, stepped into a Pan American Airways liner and roared off to Miami on his way back to Washington.

To the Pan-American Conference at Montevideo (see p. 12), the Cuban Government denounced Ambassador Welles for "intrigue" against President Grau San Martin. In Havana, despite the traditional close-mouthed clannishness of diplomats, Mr. Welles was also denounced by Dr. Fernandez y Medina, the Uruguayan Minister to Cuba. For the past month Dr. Fernandez has been negotiating among Cuban politicians with an aim similar to that usually ascribed to Mr. Welles, namely, to obtain by peaceful persuasion the resignation of Dr. Ramon Grau San Martin as President and the formation of a coalition government which would hold a fair Cuban election.

"Ambassador Welles," blazed Minister Fernandez, "spoiled everything! We had everything set. The only matter pending was setting the date for President Grau's resignation and it is solely Ambassador Welles stepping out of bounds which caused the failure. I have lost 20 days work because Mr. Welles did not deign to follow my advice."

The advice, apparently, was to abstain from pressing President Grau too brusquely to resign. The pressure, according to Havana correspondents, was exerted by Senor Dorta Duque, "a close friend of Mr. Welles." When the Ambassador denied, just before he left Havana, that he had acted in any other role than that of "friendly observer," Uruguay's Dr. Fernandez said: "A rupture was produced by persons who represented themselves as connected with Mr. Welles."

Frankly jubilant as Ambassador Welles hopped off was Tom Pettey, ebullient New York Herald Tribune newsman, who has covered Cuba's series of revolutions with zeal and zest.

"Plotting, intrigue and back-door diplomacy on the part of the American Embassy have thus far failed . . ." cabled Tom Pettey. "The intrigue of the embassy even spread to newspaper men. Mr. Welles only two days ago advised the correspondents that he would inform them of any important turn of affairs through one of his favored correspondents, who had been swapping information with him.

"It was this writer's lot to sit beside the correspondent of a leading news agency last night and heli speed to Mr. Welles the telephonic information that the Ambassador's house had fallen down i. e. that negotiations for President Grau's resignation had failed]. Mr. Welles's reaction, on learning what had happened, was a request that the informant please telephone the news to the writer he had first named to spread tidings. . . .

"Mr. Welles still is very much in the picture, as regards Cuban affairs, for he is returning to an important State Department post at Washington, and undoubtedly will have the last say in any decision concerning Cuba. Nevertheless, only a certain inelegant word describes what awaits the unfortunate [Assistant Secretary of State] Jefferson Caffery, who is to replace Mr. Welles, and that is the word 'mess.' "

As the Ambassador's plane landed him in Miami, exiled Cuban foes of President Grau embarrassed Mr. Welles by hailing him as one who had "done his best" to oust the President. An impulsive anti-Grau senorita made the Ambassador blush by flinging her arms around his neck and whispering something in his ear.

This week the Cuban "mess"' boiled up as Mr. Caffery neared Havana. Mobsters friendly to the government sacked, looted and burned the opposition newsorgan El Pats ("The Fatherland' ). Dr. Grau defiantly announced that he will remain Provisional President until May 20, 1934, will then hand his resignation to a Cuban Constituent Assembly elected under his rule. At this declaration bombs burst in air all over Havana. The rattle of rifle fire was heard through the night. But the morrow brought Mr. Caffery's steamer and sufficient calm for several hundred Cubans and U. S. citizens to stage a solemn welcome on the dock. Neither an Ambassador nor a Minister, Jefferson Caffery is the personal representative of President Roosevelt who does not recognize President Grau but deems it best to keep an eye on him.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.