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  4. Document 249

701.1611/214b

The Secretary of State to the Salvadoran Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Jiménez )

Washington , June 18, 1931.

Excellency: I have had the honor of receiving the esteemed note of the Salvadoran Minister for Foreign Affairs dated May 27, 1931, in which your Government has been so gracious as to assure me of its gratitude for the acts of courtesy which, fulfilling alike their duty and the dictates of their personal esteem for Dr. Carlos Leiva, the Chargé d’Affaires of El Salvador, the members of this Government extended to him in connection with the assault of which he was the victim in the Legation of El Salvador in this Capital. Likewise a request is made that an investigation of the events associated with the assault be made with particular reference to what you consider to be the lack of adequate protection afforded the person of your Government’s representative by the local police, and you ask that adequate protection be extended in the future.

I hasten to assure you that the Government of the United States deplores sincerely that the representative of the Government of El Salvador should have been the victim of such an unfortunate accident in this Capital. I am advised that an investigation is being made into all phases of this occurrence, that the appropriate authorities are making every effort to apprehend and punish those guilty of the assault on Dr. Leiva,36 and that every measure will be taken to extend adequate protection to him and to the Legation of El Salvador.

I may add that as an act of courtesy and grace the Government of the United States intends to defray the expenses to which Dr. Leiva has been put consequent to the assault upon his person, and with that in view Dr. Leiva is being requested to send the bills covering those expenses to the Department of State for payment.

Accept [etc.]

Henry L. Stimson

  1. In his note of July 24, 1936, to the Salvadoran Minister (Castro) the Secretary of State wrote:

    “… I am advised by the appropriate authority of this Government that the evidence now available is not considered to constitute a sufficient basis upon which to institute criminal proceedings against any known person in connection with the burglary and assault committed at the Legation.” (701.1611/320)

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