417.00/328: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Nicaragua (Hanna)

[Paraphrase]

92. Legation’s telegram No. 128, May 1, 10 a.m., indicated that the President of Nicaragua wished to create a temporary Claims Commission with an American, other than a resident American member of the High Commission, as president. The suggestion of the Department in its June 7, 6 p.m., was made on the supposition that the President felt that he could legally carry out this program. If the President cannot do so, the Department feels that it would be preferable to wait until the law is amended by Congress.

Your 157, June 8, noon. The Department is unwilling to accept Lindberg as president of the Claims Commission. The Department understands that he has engaged in private business transactions, such as personal loans and investments in local enterprises in Nicaragua, and this, the Department feels, would make him ineligible.

If you consider it necessary you may explain informally to the President and to Lindberg that the Department feels that the president of the Claims Commission should be a person who has had no previous connection with Nicaraguan affairs, in order to eliminate all possibility of a feeling on the part of claimants that the decisions of the president of the Claims Commission are influenced by local considerations. The Department also feels that the person selected should be able to devote his entire time to the work.

Stimson