714.44A15/26
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of the American Republics ( Duggan ) of a Conversation With the Counselor of the British Embassy ( Mallet )
Mr. Mallet said that he was coming in quite informally to let the Department know of a recent action taken by the British Government with regard to the boundary dispute between British Honduras and Guatemala. He said that the Guatemalan Government had proposed to the British Government that the boundary difficulty be submitted to arbitration and that the arbitrator be the President of the United States. He then said that the British Government had informed the Guatemalan Minister in London on August 17 that it would be glad to agree to arbitration of the dispute, but that it would prefer that the arbitration be not in the hands of the President of the United States, but in the Hague Court. Mr. Mallet stated that the British Government wanted this Government to know that in suggesting the Hague Court the British Government was casting no reflection upon the impartiality or good faith of the President of the United States. He said that for some time it has been the invariable practice of the British Government to submit to the Hague disputes of a legal character.
I assured Mr. Mallet that the point of view of his Government was fully understood.