817.812/381
The Secretary of the Treasury (Mellon) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd ultimo9 transmitting a copy of despatch number 108 dated August 20th, 1923, from the American Consul at Bluefields, Nicaragua,9 reporting an inquiry made by an exporter to the United States as to whether Little Corn and Great Corn Islands are considered a part of the United States, with a view to obtaining the free entry of coconuts from the islands.
In the convention between the United States and Nicaragua, signed at Washington August 5, 1914, and proclaimed June 24, 1916, (39 Stat Pt 2 1661)10 I find the following provision:
“The Government of Nicaragua hereby leases for the term of ninety-nine years to the Government of the United States the islands in the Caribbean Sea known as Great Corn Island and Little Corn Island”.
As this Department has been favored for many years with your advice on such territorial questions when they arose, I shall appreciate an expression of your views on this particular question in order that a decision under the tariff laws may be more intelligently made.
By direction of the Secretary.
Respectfully,
Assistant Secretary
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- Foreign Relations, 1916, p. 849.↩