File No. 818.00/279
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Costa Rica ( Johnson )
On December 22 [29]1 the Department cabled Am[erican] Legation, Panama, to the following effect:
Instruct censor to withhold transmission Volio’s cables. You may inform Volio that the Government of United States will not countenance armed activities such as he contemplates, inasmuch as this Government feels that only by moral force can a constitutional and duly legalized Government be set up in Costa Rica.
You may inform Government of Panama that Government of United States cannot countenance any armed activities against Government of Nicaragua or the people of Costa Rica and wishes to emphasize the responsibility which, of course, the Government of Panama recognizes rests upon that Government to prevent armed forces from leaving territory of Panama for the purpose of operating in either of the neighboring Republics. Please communicate contents of this telegram to United States military authorities, and request their cooperation in watching movements of Volio and his followers and in preventing them from undertaking armed expedition contemplated by them.
Department is in receipt of reports to the effect that Castro Quesada and his associates have affiliations with German interests.
Which Panama answered January first as follows:
British Minister tells me Volio told him to-day that he was discouraged and had about decided not to pursue his project; that, however, Rogelio Guell, formerly editor the Imparcial, San José, had made plans to begin a revolution backed by the Germans and German money at the time he left, but agreed to hold off for him to carry out his intention.
Keep Department fully informed of any revolutionary rumors, particularly as to the real leaders and their affiliations with German interests. Your December 22, 4 p.m.2 Cables withheld by censor show Volio is in direct communication with Gonzalez and Castro Quesada in New York.
- Foreign Relations, 1917, p. 349.↩
- Not printed.↩