File No. 715.1715/10
The Honduran Minister ( Membreño) to the Secretary of State
[Left at the Department, October 11, 1913.]
Memorandum
On October 7, 1894, the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua signed a convention for the demarcation of their boundary that was approved by their Congresses. It stipulated that a joint boundary commission should be appointed, composed of an equal number of members on either part, that would mark out the line, and that the points on which they could not agree should be submitted to unappealable arbitration. Rules were laid down for the constitution of the tribunal and the proceedings of the trial.
In accordance with that convention, the joint commission began its work and completed it from the Gulf of Fonseca to the Teotecasinte Gap. There disagreement began; there remained to be determined that part of the line running from the Teotecasinte Gap to the Atlantic Ocean.
In continued observance of the convention, the representatives of Nicaragua and Honduras met at the Spanish Legation in Guatemala City, and, in common accord, named the King of Spain, Don Alfonso XIII, for arbitrator to decide the question. That appointment which was made known to the Congress of Nicaragua by the Minister of Foreign Relations in his report of November 30, 1905, was approved, as were the other acts of the Executive power, by the National Legislative Assembly. Honduras, for her part, accepted the arbitrator as designated, and the King of Spain the office with which he was intrusted.
Nicaragua and Honduras appointed their counsel and the last-named Republic accredited a minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Madrid. Nicaragua already had one. The case was opened: each party submitted its case and rejoinder; these were accompanied by innumerable documentary proofs which had been copied for a period of 20 years or more from the archives of Spain and America; men most prominent in Spain for their knowledge and integrity intervened in the dispute; and after laboring two years (1905 and 1906) the King handed down his award on the 23d of December 1906, which makes the dividing line between Honduras and Nicaragua run along the Segovia and Poteca Rivers, and from the confluence of the last-named river with the Guineo or Namasli, names one or several lines to the Teotecasinte Gap.
The award was accepted by the Governments and Congresses of both Republics, the Minister of Foreign Relations of Nicaragua adding [Page 12] that “there being obscure and even contradictory points, he had instructed Minister Don Crisanto Medina to ask that they be elucidated.” It does not appear that such a request has been made. The Congress of Honduras issued a decree No. 27, of February 4, 1907, which recognizes the validity of titles delivered by Nicaraguan authorities to land remaining under Honduran jurisdiction under the award, subject to the sole condition that the titles be recorded in the Honduran registers.
The war waged by Nicaragua against Honduras two months after the award was pronounced, and the new President installed in the last-named Republic after Nicaragua’s victory, did not permit of the award being executed for a period of five years. Then came the political change in Nicaragua caused by President Zelaya’s overthrow and in Honduras by President Davila’s resignation, and when Dr. Don Francisco Bertrand, named by the Tacoma Conference to exercise the presidency of Honduras, was about to assume his office, he received from the Minister of Gobernación of Nicaragua a telegram saying that the first brotherly demonstration that Government would give to the Government of Honduras would be the full recognition of the arbitral award of the King of Spain.
Although the dividing line set by the award is a natural one in nearly all its length, the small part from the confluence of the Poteca River with the Guineo or Namasli to the Teotecasinte Gap must be marked on the ground. On April 25, 1911, the Minister of Foreign Relations of Honduras wrote to that of Nicaragua a courteous note asking that an agreement be reached for the marking of the line.
The note was answered by the Nicaraguan Chancellery on March 19, 1912, thanks to the action taken on several occasions by the representatives of Honduras. Nicaragua, after accepting the award, now claims that all that has been done since the appointment of the arbitrator is of no effect because of non-observance of the provisions of the boundary convention, and further that there are difficulties in the execution of the award. Lastly, the Government of Nicaragua declines to comply with the award until it shall have been declared valid by the Nicaraguan Assembly. Honduras, by note of July 12, 1912, calls its attention to the fact that the convention was executed as intended by the Governments and Congresses since they knew and approved all that was done, and that the award being unappealable under the convention, there is nothing for the Legislature of Nicaragua to do. No reply has been made to that note.
The remainder of the line to be marked, from the confluence of the Poteca with the Teotecasinte Gap, offers no difficulty. Neither is there anything in store for the owners of land, mines, etc., in the part awarded to Honduras, as the Government of that Republic recognizes them as lawful owners, under the decree of February 4, 1907, confirmed on the 7th of April 1911. If any obstacle should come up as to the mouth of the river or its navigation, Honduras, upon examination of such statement as Nicaragua may make, is ready to enter upon a friendly agreement. Since civilization has made a dogma of the free navigation of rivers, Nicaragua need not apprehend that her sister and neighbor Honduras will show difficulties in the enforcement of her revenue regulations or measures of safety.