File No. 815.77/78.

The Secretary of State to the American Minister.

[Telegram—Paraphrase.]

It is represented to the Department that W. S. Valentine, an American citizen, fears that the Government of Honduras will dispossess him of railway and wharf properties at Puerto Cortés without his claim connected therewith having been adjusted. He is willing to relinquish control and management of the properties as soon as his interests are properly protected and protests against any action by the Government of Honduras which would take from him his properties without full compensation. You will make representations to the Foreign Office in the sense that this Government, without going into the legal merits of the claim at this time, is convinced that the claim possesses equities which should be met and that any action taken in violation of such equities could not be regarded by this Government as an indication of that friendly attitude toward American enterprise which the Government of the United States would like to see animate the actions of the Government of Honduras.

Knox.