817.00/4953b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt)
117. The Department and the American public are naturally much disturbed by continued reports of engagements between the United States marines and the forces of Sandino. The Department is also greatly embarrassed by the fact that these reports almost always appear in the newspapers prior to the receipt of any information whatever from you. To-day’s press, for example, reports that our marines and the Nicaraguan constabulary just escaped being ambushed, and that one marine and several of the constabulary had been wounded. The Department appreciates the practical difficulties encountered, but it cannot fail to regard this situation with grave anxiety. As the Legation must know, the Department’s information regarding actual conditions affecting the restoration of tranquility and order in Nicaragua has on many occasions been found to be grossly inaccurate and misleading. The Department, therefore, cannot impress upon you too strongly the urgency of keeping it promptly and accurately informed. The Department has been led to believe that armed opposition to the present program would speedily disappear, and that it need anticipate no serious complications on this account. If the Department must face the probability that Sandino or any other bandit can raise and keep in the field forces sufficient to cause trouble and give rise to repeated engagements with the United States marines and the Nicaraguan constabulary, like those which have recently taken place, the Department should like to have immediately by telegraph as full a report as possible from you and General Feland setting forth actual conditions and advising what the Department must expect.