Office of the Historian

173. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, January 7, 19551

Washington, January 7, 1955

SUBJECT

  • Conversation with Ambassador Facio

PARTICIPANTS

  • Sr. Dr. Don Antonio Facio, Ambassador of Costa Rica
  • ARA—Mr. Holland
  • ARA—Ambassador Sparks
  • AR—Mr. Jamison
  • MID—Mr. Ohmans

Ambassador Facio reported that Foreign Minister Esquivel2 continued to be worried over the possibility of an invasion of Costa Rica soon and had tentatively decided to call for a meeting of Consultation of the Foreign Ministers to consider the problem.

Mr. Holland countered with the suggestion that the Inter-American Peace Committee appeared to be the organization set up to meet such problems, could act independently, and could act immediately. Mr. Jamison pointed out that under the Rio Treaty the Council of the OAS could meet and decide to act provisionally as Organ of Consultation, convoking a meeting of Foreign Ministers for an unspecified date. Meanwhile the Council would act with all the attributes of the Foreign Ministers’ meeting. He added that probably the Council, once convoked, would send an investigating committee to the area, and would then report its recommendations to the Council.

Mr. Holland stated that it seemed to him clear that since Costa Rica was concerned about the situation it should call for a meeting [Page 584] of the Council and ask for an investigation. He personally was delighted that Costa Rica was about to resort to OAS procedures and expressed the view that once the matter was under OAS consideration, nothing would happen in Costa Rica. Mr. Jamison added that much of the success of action under the Rio Treaty depended, of course, on the facts presented.

Mr. Holland told Ambassador Facio that if Costa Rica decided to call for a meeting of the Council he would make sure that Ambassador Dreier, the US representative on the Council, would be available for the meeting on Saturday, January 8.

Ambassador Facio left saying that he intended to call Foreign Minister Esquivel to urge that he be instructed to call for a meeting of the Council.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 718.00/1–755. Confidential. Drafted by Ohmans.↩
  2. Mario Esquivel Arguedas.↩