◆ SpookStack

COpy COP::- -4- COpy He indicated that it wcs very foolish for the United S:.ates to furnish arms to Cuba or any other Carib- bean country. He said -anyOOdT knows that our countries are not going to be able to play any part in the defense of this heffi1sphere in the event a world war breaks out. The arms governments get in this hemlsphere are only used to suppress people as Batista used his arms to fight the revolution. It would be far better if the money that you give to Latin American countries .for arms be provided for capital investment." I will hzve to admit that as far as his basic argwnent was concerned· here r- fOlllld little that I could disagree with.! We had ·a rather extendEd discussion of how Cuba could get the investment capi.tal itr.eeded for economic progress. He i.nsisted that what Cuba prbJ:¥i,.ly needed and what· he wanted was not private capital oUt government capital. He gave me some rather confused ~~ts as to why plants that were licensed and/or owned and operated by the government would serve the best interests of Cuba better than privately owned enterprises'. I told him quite bluntly that his best hope as far as the United States vas concerned was not in getting more government capita: but in attracting private capital. I explained that gover.rnment capital was limited be- cause of the mmy demands upon it and the budget problems we presently confronted. I point-=d out that private capital on the other hand was expansible and that he. would be serving the interests of Cuba far bett-.:.r hy adoptlng policies which would attract it. I pointed o::.t that there was competition for capital throughout the Americas and the world and that it would not go to a COuntry ~~ere there was any considerable fear that policies might be aaupted which would discriminate against private enterprise. A~ this point he, at considerable length, tried to explain wey C~ had said and done some of the things which had appeared ~ be anti~private enterprise up to this time. Here again on Gi.s point I doubt if I made too much of an impression. He explained his a~rarian reform program in consider- able detail justifying it prj~.~rily on the ground that Cuba needed more people who were ~le to buy the goods produced wi thin the country and that it would· make no sense to pro- duce more in factories unless ~e amount of money in the hands of cons~ers was increased. COpy COpy