File No. 817.51/256.

The Secretary of State to Brown Brothers and Company and J. and W. Seligman and Company.

Gentlemen: I acknowledge the receipt of your joint letter of the 2d instant wherein you advise me that on September 1, 1911, you entered into an agreement with the Republic of Nicaragua by which you undertook to make a temporary loan of $1,500,000 which you state the Republic urgently needed. You inform me that as security [Page 1080] for this loan the Republic of Nicaragua has pledged its customs receipts and agreed, in order to make such pledge effective, that the customs should be collected by a collector-general to be nominated by you and approved by me, and you enclose with your letter a copy of the agreement referred to. You further inform me that the contract has been approved by the Congress of Nicaragua, and that, having therefore become effective, you have, in accordance with its terms, nominated Mr. Clifford D. Ham, who is at present Surveyor of the Port of Manila, in the Philippine Islands, to be Collector-General of Customs of Nicaragua. You submit his name to me, requestion that if it meets with my approval you be so advised.

In reply you are informed that a note has also been received from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Nicaragua in this city in which he informs the Department of the negotiation of this contract and requests, on behalf of his Government, that I take action upon the request made by you for the approval of the nomination of a Collector-General of Customs of Nicaragua who, under the terms of the contract, is to be appointed by that Government. Since receiving your letter I have caused inquiry to be made regarding the fitness of Mr. Ham to fill the position for which he has been selected, and I am happy to be able to advise you that I have received a favorable reply. I therefore approve the selection of Mr. Clifford D. Ham as Collector-General of Customs of Nicaragua, as a suitable and competent person to discharge the duties of that position.

As pointed out during your informal conferences with officials of this Department in the month of August last, my approval of the person selected for the post of Collector-General of Customs of Nicaragua must not in any wise be understood as indicating that the Government of the United States will lend any other or further good offices in the protection of the American citizens parties to this contract than it would accord to any legitimate American enterprise abroad, nor that this approval places the bankers in any better position in regard to seeking this protection than if I took no part whatever in the approval of a Collector-General of Customs.

I am [etc.]

P. C. Knox.