File No. 22113/14A.
The Secretary of State to the Honduranean Minister.
Washington, November 9, 1909.
My Dear Mr. Minister: Referring to your interview of yesterday afternoon in which you requested that the controversy between this Government and that of Honduras be taken up in Washington instead of in Tegucigalpa, I beg to inform you that this Government regrets that it can not accede to the wishes of your Government in this matter.
The gasoline vessel Perlas is American built and was recently sent to Nicaragua, there to engage in ordinary and legitimate business. The vessel is the property of citizens of the United States.
It is reported to this department that she was recently pressed into service by the revolutionary forces at Bluefields and dispatched with a passenger for Puerto Barrios. On the way she was obliged to put into Puerto Cortes for fuel, where she has been detained by the authorities of the Honduranean Government.
The Government of the United States does not raise the question as to the right of Honduras to hold the passenger that this vessel was carrying at the time it put into Puerto Cortes, but insists that the detention of the vessel is without warrant or authority, and has demanded and will continue to demand its immediate release from the Honduranean authorities. The right to arrest the passenger does not carry with it the right to detain the vessel.
I am, etc.,