File No. 817.51/487.
The Acting Secretary of State to Brown Brothers and Company and J and W. Seligman and Company.
Washington, August 19, 1912.
Gentlemen: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant in which, on behalf of the National Bank of Nicaragua, Incorporated, you transmit, for the information of the Department, a copy of a letter dated August 2d to Ernest H. Wands, Esquire, Financial Agent of Nicaragua, relative to an immediate loan of $100,000 requested by the President of Nicaragua, and a copy of Mr. Wands’ reply thereto.
In reply you are informed that this Government always exercises every proper effort to protect legitimate interests abroad insofar as the particular facts and circumstances of the given case may warrant. However, you will of course appreciate that this Department could [Page 1104] not undertake in any way to guarantee investments of American capital in foreign countries. Moreover, it should be stated that it is the custom of the Department to decline to express an opinion as to the attitude which it might take with reference to anticipated occurrences which might, under the rules and regulations prescribed by international law, warrant representations by this Government in behalf of its citizens.
I am [etc.]