714.1515/644: Telegram

The Minister in Honduras (Summerlin) to the Secretary of State

57. El Cronista last evening printed telegram sent on April 26th by Felix Canales Salazar, an engineer in Tegucigalpa, to his brother-in-law, Angel Zuniga Huete, an Honduran Liberal emigrado now in San Jose, Costa Rica, inquiring if Mr. Davis8 were ever anywhere an employee of the United Fruit Company. The reply of Zuniga, dated April 27th, was also published and is a vicious libel on Mr. Davis, [Page 80] stating that he is connected with the United Fruit Company in some capacity. Zuniga’s telegram further states as a fact that Mr. Davis was, before going to Costa Rica, a small commercial employee and of education inferior to Morales, former American Minister to Honduras. It is stated also that it is well known that Mr. Davis protected the interests of the United Fruit Company in the recent conference,9 which was called a Guatemalan triumph. I have protested vigorously to the President against the publication of such an outrageous lie. I venture to suggest that Zuniga might be liable to prosecution under the law of Costa Rica. Repeated to Mr. Davis at Tela and to San Jose and Guatemala City.

Summerlin
  1. Roy Tasco Davis, American Minister in Costa Rica, and representative of the United States on the Guatemalan-Honduran Boundary Commission.
  2. Conference of the Mixed Boundary Commission of Guatemala and Honduras at Cuyamel, Honduras, April 7, 1928; see vol. i, pp. 712 ff.