814.00/1207: Telegram
The Minister in Guatemala (Hanna) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:45 p.m.]
23. My telegram No. 21, May 10, 1 p.m. [11 a.m.] Following my usual custom I called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs27 immediately [Page 624] after seeing the President and expressed the Department’s attitude to him. He commented at length in defense of the movement, his principal points being the practical problem presented as against the technical, the universal desire that President Ubico continue in power, the lack of anyone competent to succeed him, the right of the forthcoming Constituent Assembly to modify the decisions of the preceding one and the sovereign right of the people to decide the whole matter. He placed particular emphasis on the point of legality and seemed to think that it could be decided by the Guatemalan people only. I expressed no opinion on any of the points raised.
- A. Skinner Klée.↩