File No. 823.124/4.
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury.1
Washington, April 24, 1912.
Sir: The Government of Peru has been authorized by the Congress of that country to contract a loan of 200,000 pounds for the sanitation of Iquitos. The Department is now informed by the American Minister at Lima that the President of Peru requests this Government to recommend a sanitation expert for the carrying out of this work. In reply to an inquiry as to the authority which will be given to such an expert the Minister telegraphs that the President of Peru will invest the expert with as full authority as the law authorizing this work will permit him to confer, and that the services of the expert will be contracted for until the completion of the work.
I therefore have the honor to request that you will be so good as to recommend, at your earliest convenience, with the advice of the Surgeon General of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, one or more men whom you believe to be well fitted for this important position. It is presumed that a knowledge of Spanish on the part of the person finally recommended will be required.
With the view to learning from the War Department of a possible candidate for this position, a similar letter is being sent to the Secretary of War.
I have [etc.]
- Mutatis mutandis, to the Secretary of War.↩