Pablo Desvernine

Pablo Desvernine y Galdós was a Havana lawyer and professor whose public career combined legal scholarship, finance, and diplomacy. Born in 1854, he studied at the University of Havana and Columbia University. He served as finance secretary under the American military governor John R. Brooke and began teaching civil law at Havana in 1900. He also presided over Cuba’s agricultural exhibitions in 1911 and 1912. ¹

Desvernine joined the Cuban special mission to Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, headed by Antonio Martín Rivero, before succeeding Rivero as minister in Washington in June 1913. President Mario García Menocal brought him back into the cabinet as secretary of state the following year. ^{2, 5, 1}

As foreign minister, Desvernine defended Cuba’s restrictions on Chinese immigration. In an April 1915 reply to an American request to suspend new enforcement measures while a treaty with China was negotiated, he maintained that the exclusion rules inherited from the 1902 military government would remain in force. He nevertheless invited proposals for an arrangement acceptable to both Cuba and China. ³

In April 1921 he conveyed Cuba’s acceptance of an agreement allowing All America Cables to operate commercial cables and a relay station at Guantánamo. The arrangement modified the restrictions imposed by the naval base lease, permitting connections with New York, Colón, and Cuban ports and providing for further Caribbean links. ⁴