715.1715/325: Telegram
The Minister in Honduras (Summerlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:30 p.m.]
89. In carrying out the instructions in the Department’s telegram No. 62, September 19, 6 p.m., I addressed a note to the Foreign Office and last evening received a reply thereto, dated September 21, in which the Minister for Foreign Affairs, after repeating the substance of my note, continues as follows:
“In reply I have the honor of informing Your Excellency that the Government of Honduras, in decreeing martial law in the zone which was specified in the decree itself, did so with the knowledge of the Government of Nicaragua, without any protest, and with the principal object of cooperating, as a Government friendly to Nicaragua, in the pacification of the Segovias which for so long were suffering the consequences of the Sandinista rebels, Honduras having given its effective cooperation, notwithstanding the economic and other sacrifices on its part. With this end in view my Government ordered that armed details should watch the frontier of both countries so as to pursue and capture the rebels, but without ordering any violent act against Nicaraguan forces, nor the capture of any person, other than rebels. I must inform you also that my Government has already ordered the withdrawal of these Honduran soldiers and the liberation of the prisoners, in case that which is said is true. In these circumstances, according to the suggestion of Your Excellency, there will now be no difficulty in carrying to a conclusion the proceedings indispensable to the execution of the award of His Majesty the King of Spain amid the cordial and friendly relations which fortunately exist between Honduras and Nicaragua. And my Government heeding the suggestion which, in the name of the Government of the United States, Your Excellency was good enough to make that, Honduras withdraw[ing] from any territory hitherto occupied by Nicaragua, as a preliminary step, there will be no difficulty to any further negotiations, I must inform you that His Excellency the Minister of Nicaragua, General Augusto J. Caldera, has proposed informally to His Excellency the President of this Republic the naming of a commission of engineers, one by Honduras, another by Nicaragua and another by the Government of the United States, the third named at the request of the Governments of those two republics in order that they might proceed to the definite tracing of the boundary line, taking as a base the above-mentioned award; in this conception I am happy to inform you that Honduras would be glad if the enlightened Government of Your Excellency, interested as it is in the removal of causes which impede the maintenance of the tranquillity of the two countries, would have the goodness to interpose its good offices with the Nicaraguan Government with the object that this commission may be named with the shortest possible delay, to the above mentioned end, so that this matter may be concluded as soon as possible, offering in [Page 981] advance the gratitude of the Government and people of Honduras to Your Government for its efforts.
I avail myself of this opportunity, et cetera.”
Repeated to Nicaragua.