816.01/405
The Assistant Secretary of State (Welles) to President Roosevelt34
My Dear Mr. President: In my letter to you of January 8th last, the Department submitted for your approval a suggested procedure for arriving at the recognition of the present government of El Salvador by the United States. The course as suggested was approved by you.
I am glad to say that the negotiations undertaken were carried out successfully and that the Governments of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras, as the result of the initiative taken by President Sacasa of Nicaragua, have today accorded formal recognition to the Government of El Salvador. The foreign ministers of the three Governments mentioned have at the same time announced that the provisions of the Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1923 are still binding in so far as their own Governments are concerned. The three Governments have likewise agreed upon, and will in the immediate future make public, an invitation to the Governments of El Salvador and Costa Rica which have denounced the Treaty of 1923 to join with them in a new Central American conference for the purpose of revising the 1923 treaty and of negotiating such other common agreements as may seem desirable.
The Government of the United States has not recognized the Martínez government in El Salvador, as you will recall, because of the fact that so long as the provisions of the Central American Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1923 remained binding upon the Central American governments, the republics of Central America could not themselves extend recognition and it was believed that since the Central American republics had entered into that treaty for the announced purpose of discouraging revolutions in Central America, the Government of the United States should cooperate with them in that effort. Now, however, since the Government of Costa Rica is no longer bound by the provisions of that treaty in view of its denouncement thereof and in view of the announcement by the Governments of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras that the provisions of the treaty are no longer binding upon El Salvador and Costa Rica, and since all of the governments of Central America have accorded official recognition to the Martínez government in El Salvador, there would seem to be every reason why this Government without delay should resume official relations with the Government of El Salvador and accord formal recognition to President Martínez.
[Page 256]If this proposed step meets with your approval, will you authorize us to instruct the American Legation in San Salvador to extend official recognition to the Government of President Martínez in your name.
I suggest that the actual recognition by the United States, should it meet with your approval, should be postponed until tomorrow in order that it may be made perfectly obvious that the United States is acting independently in the matter and not conjointly with the three Central American governments which have recognized President Martínez today.
Faithfully yours,
- A photostatic copy of this letter, filed under 816.01/412, bears the following notation: “Approved, Jan. 26, ‘34, Franklin D. Roosevelt.”↩