File No. 817.51/396.
The Acting Secretary of State to the President.
Washington, March 21, 1912.
Dear Mr. President: I am happy to be able to inform you that the Department has just received a telegram from Mr. Weitzel, American Minister to Nicaragua, to the effect that the Assembly of that country on the 19th instant passed, by a vote of twenty-two to three, the plan of currency reform, and also the bill providing for the supplementary loan of $725,000 from the American bankers; and that the following morning, on a motion to approve this action, the Assembly ratified the same, although the bill was slightly amended in a way unobjectionable to the bankers.
Mr. Weitzel has also sent a later telegram, which, paraphrased, reads as follows:
March 20, 6 p.m. Nicaragua, by passing the legislation necessary for the monetary reform, has again demonstrated its good faith in requesting the friendly assistance of the United States in establishing its finances upon a firm basis, and in putting an end to the ruinous fluctuations of the Nicaraguan currency. The well-known currency expert, Mr. Charles A. Conant, after several months of earnest study of the monetary and financial situation in Nicaragua, has evolved what will undoubtedly prove to be a most satisfactory working-plan for the much needed currency reform.
The people of Nicaragua are now anxiously waiting the response of the United States to their call for aid, and they most earnestly hope that the Senate of the United States may approve the loan convention, and thus confer upon them the full benefits of the reorganization of their political and financial system, which during the seventeen years of arbitrary and corrupt government under Zelaya were plunged into disorder bordering on anarchy.
Reforms just enacted by the Nicaraguan Assembly have the general support of all classes, with the exception of the few persons identified with the Zelaya régime, of the speculators and of the English and other foreign bankers who profit by their control of the internal loans.
While there are still in Nicaragua professional revolutionists who might welcome a rejection of the treaty, Mr. Weitzel is led by his experience in Nicaragua to believe that the Nicaraguan people as a whole are honestly desirous of securing peace in order to develop their country, and to share in the benefits which will accrue to them by reason of their close proximity to the Panama Canal.
This is but one more proof that the people of Nicaragua not only approve but desire the loan convention, and would seem sufficient to refute effectively any statements to the contrary. I hope that, the above information may be of use to you in your efforts to make clear the great urgency of immediate favorable action on the convention, and I am sure that you will be glad to hear not only of the action of the Nicaraguan Assembly, but also of the conclusions, fully concurred in by the Department, which Mr. Weitzel has drawn therefrom.
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