818.154/229
The Chargé in Costa Rica (Drew) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 3.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith copy and translation10 of Note No. 293–B–420–87, dated May 21, 1935 from the Costa Rican Minister for Foreign Affairs, together with enclosures, in reply to this Legation’s Note No. 99 of August 6, 1934 presenting a claim on behalf of the Simmons Construction Corporation in accordance with the Department’s Instruction No. 67 of July 18, 1934.10
It will be observed that the Foreign Minister’s Note is confined largely to presentation of “certain considerations of a purely moral nature” in connection with the claim, and encloses a brief prepared at his request by the attorney who represented the Government in the litigation with the Simmons Construction Corporation, Mr. Victor Vargas Quesada. The brief in question is principally devoted to a presentation of a refutation of the legal points raised in the Legation’s Note of last August.
The main thesis of the enclosed communication, a point which has also been stressed to me orally by Mr. Gurdián, is that the Department’s claim was formulated on the basis of erroneous information received from the Simmons Construction Corporation, and that the American Government will modify its opinion after studying the new data submitted by the Costa Rican Government. At the time that Mr. Gurdián made this statement to me, I assured him that the Department of State had been furnished with all documents and information bearing on the litigation which had become available to this Legation since the beginning of the case, and that I was confident that the claim of my Government had only been presented after the most careful consideration of that information.
Respectfully yours,