File No. 837.00/512.
[Untitled]
Sir: With reference to my No. 1207 of November 21 [etc.] I have the honor to report that despite the apparently satisfactory settlement reached by the veterans and the Government a disposition not to accept that settlement seems now to prevail in the councils of the veterans, and the situation has again become quite as serious as ever, if not indeed more so. * * * While the Government agreed to remove from office, or allow to resign, employees and officials of “objectionable war antecedents” who hold office under Executive appointment and whose tenure is not subject to provisions of the civil service law concerning the classified service (a relatively unimportant number) the status of those affected by these provisions was tacitly recognized as not subject to administrative action without an appropriate amendment of the civil service law. A day or two before that a bill had been introduced in the Senate—which was subsequently passed by that body—to amend that law in the sense of excluding from public employment men of the character whom the veterans are attacking. * * * This bill has however met unexpected opposition in the House and the present outlook is that it will not pass. * * * This afternoon Mr. Sanguily, Cuban Secretary of State, told me in the course of a conversation at the Department of State that in the opinion of all the members of the Government the situation was now more critical than ever before. * * *
I have [etc.]