714.1515/789
The Minister in Honduras (Summerlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 9.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to your telegram No. 67 of July 27, 1928, instructing me to inform the Department of the motives which prompted the Government of Honduras to dissolve its Boundary Commission, appointed last March.
The following explanation for this action was given me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a memorandum, dated July 25:
“The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Honduras declares that the reasons for the emission of Decree No. 211, by which the Boundary Commission is dissolved, were solely the following:
The Boundary Commission, according to the Decree of March 27, 1928, by which it was constituted, was empowered only to make an inspection of the frontier zone and to treat of the establishment of a provisional line, pending the definitive solution of the boundary question between Honduras and Guatemala.
At the session of April 23 of the Cuyamel Conference, the Honorable Mediator proposed that the commissions obtain powers from their respective Governments for the negotiation of a definite treaty of arbitration.
The commissions not having succeeded in attaining any of the ends for which they were created and a new proposal having been made relative to the boundary question pending between the two countries, the Government of Honduras considers the mission of the Boundary Commission to have terminated. However, if in the course of the negotiations a new agreement should be arrived at, the Government will determine the selection of its representatives in accordance with terms of the agreement which might be decided upon.
Therefore the Minister for Foreign Affairs is pleased to make declaration that the decree dissolving the Boundary Commission had no other design than that already indicated, the Government of Honduras being always ready with the greatest good will to continue the negotiations begun under the mediation of the American Government.
Tegucigalpa, July 25, 1928.”
The issuance of the decree dissolving the Boundary Commission appears to me to have been quite unnecessary and I have stated this opinion to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I have [etc.]