Printed papers on the political situation and military policy in Egypt [‎25r] (49/176)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. 1
Printed for the Committee of Imperial Defence. September 1923.
/ A
SECRET TO BE RETURNED TO THE SECRETAW
453-B.
OF THE CO^WITTEE OF IMPERIAL fifFENCE
2. WHITEHALL GARDENS, S. W. 1, AFTER
MEETING AT WHICH CONSIDERED.
A / v *
^41
COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
MILITARY POLICY IN EGYPT.
{Previous C.I.D. Papers Nos. 438-Z?, 439-R, 446-/1, 448-Z? and 450-/?.)
Note on American Relations with Cuba after the Spanish-American War.
{Prepared by the Naval Staff as an Analogous Case to the Existing Situation in
Egypt.)
WHEN declaring war against Spain the United States Government pledged
itself not to annex Cuba, but to surrender that island in due time to the Government
of its own people.
On the 31st July, 1900, the United States War Department issued an order for
general elections in Cuba for members of a Constitutional Convention, which should
draft and adopt a fundamental law for the new Republic. The American Order
stipulated that the Convention, as a part of the Constitution, should “ provide for
“ and agree with the Government of the United States upon the relations to exist
“ between that Government and the Government of Cuba. This order was slightly
modified by General Wood, who was administering Cuba; he said that the Convention
should first prepare the Constitution, and then, in a supplementary instrument, fix
the terms of Cuba’s relations with the United States. In February 1901 the
instrument was completed and signed by the members of the Convention, then General
Wood communicated to the Convention the five principles of relationship with the
United States which that Government desired (indeed demanded) that it should
adopt. One was, that the Cuban Government should never make any treaty with
any Power impairing the independence of the island or alienating, save to the United
States, any part of it. The second was, that it should never contract any public
debt in excess of its power to pay out of the ordinary revenues of the island. The
third was, that the United States should have authority to intervene, if necessary,
for the protection of Cuban independence, the maintenance of Constitutional
Government, and the fulfilment of Cuba’s international obligations, such as were
imposed upon the United States by the Treaty of Paris. The fourth was, that the
acts of the American Government in Cuba during the military occupation would be
approved and validated. The fifth was, that room for naval stations should be
granted to the United States in Cuba. These provisions were embodied, in detail,
m what was known, from the name of its author, as the Platt Amendment, which
was added by Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, to the Military Appropriation
Bill, which was passed by the Senate on the 27th February, and by the House of
Representatives on the 1st March, and became law on the 2nd March, 1901.
The Cubans demurred and were strongly supported by a faction in the United
States. The second, third and fifth of the demands were interpreted as an
impairment of the independence and sovereignty of Cuba.
A Cuban Delegation that went to Washington furnished a report on the subject;
the Convention by a single vote agreed to the demands, though with the addition of
some explanatory notes expressing the Cuban conception of its meaning.
These notes amounted to a very decided modification of the plain intent of the
Platt Amendment. They were, in brief, to the effect that the United States naval
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