Office of the Historian

717.2114/64

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt)

Washington, March 23, 1928.
No. 333

Sir: Referring to previous correspondence on the subject of a treaty between Nicaragua and Colombia to settle the dispute between those countries regarding sovereignty over the Mosquito Coast, Great and Little Corn Islands, and the San Andres Archipelago, there is enclosed herewith a draft of a treaty which the Colombian Minister has left with the Department,75 saying that it will be proposed by the Colombian Minister in Nicaragua to the Nicaraguan Government to provide for a settlement of these controversies.

You may, if consulted by the Nicaraguan Government, state that this Government feels that the proposed treaty offers a very satisfactory and equitable solution of this controversy and it therefore hopes that it will receive the approval of the Nicaraguan Government.

There are likewise enclosed copies of a proposed exchange of notes between the Colombian Minister and the Secretary of State,76 [Page 702] to be signed at the same time that the treaty between Nicaragua and Colombia are [is] signed. These notes provide for the maintenance of the status quo with respect to Serrana and Quita Sueno Banks and Roncador Cay and provides that the Government of Colombia will refrain from objecting to the maintenance by the United States of the services which it has established or may establish for aids to navigation, and the Government of the United States will refrain from objecting to the utilization, by Colombian nationals, of the waters appurtenant to the Islands for the purpose of fishing.

As this treaty recognizes Colombian [Nicaraguan]77 sovereignty over Great and Little Corn Islands, which were leased to the United States for a term of ninety-nine years by Nicaragua in the Convention signed at Washington on August 5, 1914,78 the Department feels that it would be a distinct advantage to have this proposed treaty concluded.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Francis White
  1. Draft not printed; it was signed without change on March 24. See p. 703.↩
  2. Vol. ii, pp. 637 ff.↩
  3. Corrected on the basis of instruction No. 337, Mar. 27, 1928; not printed (file No. 717.2114/64 supp.)↩
  4. Foreign Relations, 1916, p. 849.↩