815.113/303a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Honduras (Summerlin)
52. Reference your despatch No. 621 May 29, 1928. You may informally and confidentially bring to the attention of the Honduran Government the active efforts of this Government for some time [Page 78] past to prevent clandestine shipments of arms and ammunition from the United States to parties in Honduras other than those to whom import licenses have been granted by Honduras.
The embargo on exportation of arms and ammunition from the United States to Honduras was laid at request of the Honduran Government and is maintained for the protection of that Government.7 The United States has been glad to be of assistance to Honduras in this manner and does not seek to alter the status. However if the embargo becomes merely a barrier to American export trade and through unrestricted exportation from other countries its effectiveness in protecting Honduran Government is lost the Department would find difficulty in continuing defense of the embargo in the face of protests by American exporters and would be forced to give serious consideration to lifting it. The Department therefore hopes that the Honduran Government will cooperate by limiting import licenses for arms and ammunition in such manner that the embargo if maintained by the United States will prove effective.
- See proclamation No. 1689, Mar. 22, 1924, prohibiting exportation of arms and munitions of war to Honduras, and proclamation No. 1697, May 15, 1924, prescribing as an exception to the provisions of proclamation of Mar. 22, 1924, arms and munitions exported with consent of Secretary of State, Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. ii, pp. 322, 324.↩