817.51/2145: Telegram
The Minister in Nicaragua (Hanna) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 9:00 p.m.]
50. The Chamber of Deputies approved the annual budget just before taking recess for Holy Week and it will be taken up in the Senate next week. The estimate for the Guardia was reduced by the Chamber to approximately $760,000 and present indications are that the Senate will concur in the reduction. President Moncada has been out of town ever since April 11 and I have had no opportunity to discuss the subject with him but I am told that he probably is not out of sympathy with the reduction.
General McDougal18 says the reduced amount will provide for a Guardia of approximately 1,500 men. The budget disposes of all estimated receipts from all sources for the fiscal year and it is scarcely probable that there will be a surplus as heretofore from which to make supplemental allotments for support of the Guardia. On the contrary a deficit is more probable.
- Douglas C. McDougal, Chief of the National Guard of Nicaragua.↩