810.154/1119
The Secretary of State to
the Chargé in Costa Rica (Collins)
No. 387
Washington, February 19, 1937.
Sir: Referring to your Legation’s telegram 89
of December 16, 1936.7 which reported that the Minister of Public
Works had on that day urged an early answer to his Government’s note of
September 10, 1936.8 and asserted that it was anxious to push
the proposed cooperative construction of the specified section of the
Inter-American Highway, there is enclosed the text of a note which
should be addressed by the Legation to the Ministry of Foreign Relations
of Costa Rica stating that your Government will be able to cooperate on
the work in the manner suggested by the Costa Rican Government. You are
directed informally to make clear to the appropriate Costa Rican
authorities that, in the cooperative road construction work now
proposed, the major portion of the total costs of the work will have to
be borne by the Costa Rican Government, while in the cooperative bridge
construction work, offered some time ago by the Government of the United
States (the offer to cooperate in which is, you will please explain,
hereby withdrawn), the major portion of the total costs would have
fallen to your Government.
For your information there are also enclosed copies of this Department’s
letters dated October 13 and December 23, 1936, to the Department of
Agriculture, and that Department’s replies dated October 17, 1936, and
January 14, 1937.9
Very truly yours,
For the Secretary of State:
Sumner
Welles
[Enclosure]
Text of Note To Be Addressed to the Costa Rican
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Excellency: I have the honor to inform Your
Excellency that the cooperation in road construction along the route
of the Inter-American Highway between Cartago and San Marcos
tentatively proposed in your Government’s note of September 10,
1936, has received careful consideration and that the Government of
the United States will be able to cooperate on the work in the
manner suggested by the Government of Costa Rica.
In communicating to Your Excellency my Government’s willingness to
cooperate in the manner specified by your Government, in order to
make certain that there shall be no misunderstanding, I am
instructed to add the following explanations:
The technical representatives in Costa Rica of the Bureau of Public
Roads of my Government will complete, insofar as they have not
already done so, the location surveys along the proposed section of
the Highway and furnish preliminary estimates of costs of the
construction work for the use of the interested Costa Rican
authorities. My Government can furnish such road-building equipment
as will be needed for use in the construction of the specified
section of the road in question, with the understanding that such
equipment will not be used on any roads not on the route of the
Inter-American Highway. In addition to such equipment the United
States Government can furnish such steel beams, reenforcing metals,
and culvert pipes, as may be required for the drainage structures
along the specified section of the Highway. If the Government of
Costa Rica is prepared to undertake the financing of a type of
construction on this proposed work similar to that already
undertaken by it elsewhere in the vicinity of Cartago and San José,
my Government will be able not only to supply the additional
equipment required for bituminous or concrete construction, but also
the bituminous materials and cement, so far as these are products of
the United States and so far as available funds will permit. My
Government will also assign an engineer to supervise the placement
of all construction materials which it supplies. It is understood
that, as stated in your note of September 10, 1936, referred to
above, the Costa Rican Government will furnish the needed
construction materials which can be obtained in your country and
also the labor and money deemed necessary to complete the proposed
construction work. It is also understood by my Government that the
Costa Rican Government will pay the costs of transporting to the
various locations where they will be used not only the materials
needed which can be obtained in Costa Rica but also (from the Costa
Rican ports where they shall be landed) the road-building equipment
and
[Page 180]
materials furnished by
my Government, including their passage over wharves or through
customs houses, no customs charges to be assessed against my
Government on any such equipment or materials. It is further
understood that Costa Rica will furnish all rights of way needed and
in connection with all transportation and construction, provide
easements sufficient for needed operations, and will hold the United
States harmless under local law for all employees liability
obligations.
Referring to the indication in Your Excellency’s note of September
10, 1936, that, upon the approval of the work now proposed by Costa
Rica, the Executive would submit the matter to the Constitutional
Congress for its ratification and its authorization of the necessary
expenditures, I am asked to state that as soon as my Government
shall be informed that the Costa Rican Government has definitively
announced that it desires to proceed with the proposed road
construction along the lines indicated, my Government will be ready
to begin at once its part of the work.
Accept [etc.]
