810.79611 Pan American Airways, Inc./277
The Minister in Honduras ( Summerlin ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 26.]
Sir: As Mr. J. D. MacGregor, representative of the Pan American Airways, Incorporated, pointed out in the enclosure to my despatch No. 680 of August 15, 1928,9 Guillén Zelaya, editor of the Cronista, attacked the proposed Pan American contract from the beginning. Inasmuch, however, as it was decided to postpone endeavor to obtain the approval of the Contract until after the elections, his diatribe subsided until the contract was presented last month to Congress.
I now have the honor to report that the Cronista has recently published three bitterly anti-American attacks on the Pan American Airways Company and that, although these editorials consist merely of acrimonious vaporizings, always mentioning the Pan American Airways Company as “affiliated” with the United Fruit Company (see the Department’s telegram No. 56 of July 5, 1928, 5 [6] P.M.,10 and my despatch No. 653 of July 14, 1928),11 repeatedly calling the proposed contract a menace to the dignity and sovereignty of Honduras, and containing no real argument, they unfortunately appear to have considerable ill effect on some members of Congress.
I have had frequent conversations on this subject with President Mejía Colindres and other members of the Government, pointing out the earnest desire of the United States to have a mail service established in Central America with a reliable American company. The President has put the matter in the hands of General Meza Cálix, an influential member of Congress, and both of these gentlemen have told me they will do everything they properly can to have the contract approved.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed; but see instruction No. 285, September 14, 1928, to the Minister in Honduras, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 790.↩
- Ibid., p. 786.↩
- Not printed.↩