File No. 817.812/134.

Minister Hale to the Secretary of State.

[Extract]

My dear Mr. Bryan: I received your letter of July 24 by Monday’s mail (10th) and at once set about attending to the matter concerned. I have had a long talk with the President. I made known to him the contents of your letter. I told him that I had come here a year ago with a message of peace and friendship from you and the President, and that this (my speech at the presentation of my credentials) had been published in the papers of this city and commended; but that, that courtesy over, I had seen nothing but abuse of my country and people, and especially of the present administration, in the five daily papers published here. He replied that the papers did not represent Costa Rican sentiment, being edited by foreigners—which is just what his predecessor, President Jiménez, said to me when I complained of the newspaper assault on President Wilson over the head of Mayor-elect Mitchell of New York, then a visitor in San Jose, an account of which I sent to the [Page 967] Department—and that the Government and people of Costa Rica had nothing but the sincerest friendship for the Government and people of the United States. I asked him why, then, were they so warmly opposing our Nicaragua negotiations. The President is a finely-bred man—as is the case with his predecessor, Jiménez, and all the public men of this country—and seemed to hesitate to express himself. Finally he said that, considering the relation of Costa Rica to the subject, he thought Costa Rica should have been consulted. He intimated that their national pride had been touched. I referred to your assurance to Minister Calvo that our Government is ready to purchase an option on terms as favorable as those given by Nicaragua. He said that Costa Rica did not wish for money—I understood him to mean a money payment—but only wished that their rights be respected. I inquired how. He said, by recognizing their interest in the canal. That suggested a new idea and I asked if he meant that Costa Rica should have a share in the ownership of the canal when constructed. He said that that was his meaning.

I believe that a treaty could be arranged with this Government upon the terms suggested; that is, to give Costa Rica, in return for its consent, a share (of course, it would necessarily be a small share) in the canal as a going concern.

In this connection, the President said that Mr. Matamoros, the Costa Rican engineer of the Boundary Commission (who, you will recall, was of the party Mr. Calvo had to dine with us at the Shore-ham, the night before I left Washington), had assured him that a sea-level route for a canal between the oceans existed wholly within Costa Rican territory, which came to his knowledge when he was with Menocal’s party in the eighties. He said that Matamoros had offered to make a complete survey of the route for 30,000 colones ($13,953). He added that his Government’s present financial condition did not warrant the expenditure.

I think it would be well if you would have the Department instruct me to open negotiations with Mr. Matamoros on this subject, for there is no comparison in the value of a sea-level canal, particularly in this age of the rapidly increasing size of ships, as contrasted with the fixed dimensions of a lock canal.* * * Most truly yours,

E. J. Hale
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