File No. 817.812/86.
The Minister of Costa Rica to the Secretary of State.
Washington, July 18, 1914.
My Dear Mr. Bryan: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 16, in which, referring to the note of this Legation of the 7th of this month, you say that my Government has been misinformed in respect to the proposed treaty with Nicaragua; that the negotiations have not been concluded and no treaty has been presented to the Senate for its ratification; that the Department is conferring, in confidence, with the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate in regard to a tentative draft, the terms of which have not been made public; and that, if the matter in which my Government has expressed an interest becomes a matter for practical consideration, you will be pleased to examine into the protest that I presented.
Permit me to express to you, in answer thereto, that the said note of this Legation states that my Government was informed that the proposed treaty with Nicaragua would have added to it a clause, similar to the one known as the Platt Amendment, and that this unequivocal idea was what I transmitted, which in my note reads as follows:
[Quotes the first paragraph of his note of July 7.]
Thus the information transmitted to my Government was the same that I obtained from you directly.
It could have been a mistake on my part, in a certain way, to say that the treaty was awaiting ratification by the Senate, but in such case it has its explanation in various recent acts of the Senate in connection with this matter; in that in no other way has this document been generally mentioned; in the text of the minutes of the meetings of Congress; and in the very fact that it lies before the [Page 962] Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, although only in consultation, as you kindly inform me.
In regard to the precise terms of the preliminary draft alluded to, if it is true that they have not been made public it is also true that the essential features of the so-called Platt Amendment are well known, and therefore for the purpose of the protest it was not indispensable to insert a literal copy of the clause referred to.
In any case, I truly appreciate the willingness shown by the Department to enter into consideration of the protest, entertaining no doubt that this will be taken into consideration at the present time and also if the event contemplated in the protest becomes a fact, said protest having been presented by virtue of the instructions received from my Government, which, in accord with the national sentiment, believes that the autonomy of the Republic of Costa Rica would be endangered by any lessening that the autonomy of the Republic of Nicaragua might suffer, considering the special nature of the relations between the States of Central America since the beginning of their existence; and that you will consider in the same way the points relative to the treaties signed at the Central American Peace Conference held in Washington in 1907.
With assurances [etc.]