CUBA: Welles Replaced

Something of great import to all Cuba leaked out of President Roosevelt’s Warm Springs swimming pool last week: able Ambassador Sumner Welles, known to be antipathetic to the Grau San Martin regime, was about to be withdrawn. By midnight the rumor became certainty with an official announcement from the President. Ambassador Welles was to be succeeded by Assistant Secretary of State Jefferson Caffery. But. as a direct snub to the Grau Government, Mr. Welles was to return to Havana for a brief period, still U. S. Ambassador. When Mr. Caffery succeeds him it will be as an unofficial “observer,” free to confer with and advise politicos of all parties. The Grau or any other Cuban Government will not be recognized in the U. S. “until there exists in Cuba a provisional government which, through the popular support which it obtains and which through the general co-operation it enjoys, shows evidence of genuine stability.”

Promised the Havana post at the first shuffle of the New Deal.’Diplomat Caffery is quite as experienced a Career Man as his predecessor. Service has taken him from Caracas to Stockholm, from Teheran to Tokyo, from Berlin to Bogota. He can cope effectively with the Latin American mind.

Havana last week took the announcement with surface calm. No one could dodge the fact that recognition of the Grau regime seemed definitely denied, but President Grau did give out a statement:

“Even though we are not in conformity with the policies followed by the United States Ambassador, he enjoys personally our entire esteem and he will be assured at all times the greatest guarantees of safety and respect.”