The Minister of Finance of Nicaragua presents his compliments to the
Honorable Jefferson Caffery, Assistant Secretary of State, and in
compliance with his promise made at the conference he and Doctor Henri
De Bayle the Chargé d’Affaires of Nicaragua had in the State Department,
on October 28 last, is pleased to transmit the two memoranda A99 and B which contain:
At the same time he is pleased to transmit to him the copy he requested
of the document setting forth the agreement for the emergency issue of
C$1,500,000 córdobas recently decreed.99
Memorandum B
Nicaragua has not been able to avoid the influence which the special
circumstances afflicting the world have necessarily introduced into
the economic life of the country and its fiscal organization. Its
Government budget has been out of balance since 1931, to such an
extent that during the single calendar year 1932 the deficit
increased by more than C$1,158,000, a figure much too high for a
total of C$3,300,000 provided for the purely administrative services
of the Government. The total income available for these services
during that year, including a little more than C$508,500 in customs
revenues which the creditors having a lien on the revenues permitted
the Government to dispose of, and C$508,684 additional which
although assigned to special purposes were applied under temporary
legislation to the payment of the general budget, barely reached the
sum of C$2,193,551.16.
President Sacasa, from the beginning of his term and despite the
natural resistance against this kind of effort, has been endeavoring
to reduce all expenses for the purpose of balancing the budget.
Little by little, as far as his constitutional powers have permitted
him, he has progressively reduced the expenditures of various
administrative services, suppressing posts which have not appeared
to be strictly necessary and making a reduction of approximately 20
percent, in addition to another 20 percent which had been applied in
1931, in salaries of Government employees. Continuing in this
endeavor, he proposes to extend the reductions to all the other
services.
Of the fiscal income of 1932, C$1,248,757.93, that is to say almost
two-thirds, were absorbed by the maintenance of the Guardia
Nacional, which received a total of C$1,344,568.23. This institution
continues to merit all the attention and support necessary for the
maintenance of public order and tranquillity, and it is the
Government’s plan to impose upon itself whatever sacrifices are
necessary to insure the Guardia’s efficiency and prestige, but the
inevitable reduction in the cost of this institution because of
various circumstances has only been carried out to a very slight
degree. Nevertheless, the fact that it was created by an agreement
with the Government of the United States,2 although this agreement did
not receive the sanction of the American Senate, impels the
Government of Nicaragua as a matter of courtesy to inform the
Department of State of the great need, in so far as the maintenance
of order and public security in consonance with the economic
possibilities of the country will permit it, to make a reduction in
the personnel of the Guardia Nacional and in the salaries assigned
[Page 577]
to its members, which
were fixed as is well known without any appreciable reduction having
been made since the year 1929, one of the most prosperous years, and
perhaps the year the income of the Government reached its highest
point.
For the fiscal year which began July 1, 1933, there can be no doubt
that income will be even lower than the figure reached during the
year which ended June 30 last. The Government will be unable to
apply to the maintenance of this institution two-thirds of the total
of its income with manifest injury and neglect of the other branches
of the administration in which, as has been stated, the personnel
employed, and their salaries, have been reduced to the point that
circumstances in the country have permitted.
The office of Collector General of Customs was also instituted in
accordance with contracts which the Government of Nicaragua made
with bankers of the United States following recommendations of the
Department of State. This circumstance, although the obligations
contracted by the Government with those bankers have terminated,
induces the Government of Nicaragua to comply with the duty of
informing the Department of State of the Government’s intention to
proceed to a general revision of the expenses and remuneration,
likewise fixed at times of prosperity and when the State had more
funds available, in order to reduce them all in the just proportion
which corresponds to present circumstances, and which is related to
the sums which the Government also necessarily must apply to the
other services of the administration.
Washington,
November 14,
1933.
