[Enclosure]
Text of Note To Be Addressed to the Guatemalan
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Excellency: Referring to the Legation’s
related note of . . . . . I have the honor to inform Your Excellency
that I have been directed to make the following explanations
regarding further cooperative construction work along the route of
the Inter American Highway through your country:
It is understood that when Mr. E. W. James of the Bureau of Public
Roads of my Government was in Guatemala some months ago to discuss
with the appropriate authorities of your Government plans for
further cooperative construction work along the route of the
projected Highway, he was informed that, instead of the construction
of a bridge over the Panajachel River, in the construction of which
he was prepared to say that he believed his Government would be able
to cooperate, as in the construction of the Tamazulapa bridge, the
interested officials of your Government indicated that they would
prefer to have the cooperation of my Government in the construction
of two small bridges and in supplying culvert pipe and other culvert
materials needed along approximately twenty-four kilometers of the
route of the Highway between Asunción Mita and the frontier of El
Salvador. It is also understood that this section of the projected
Highway has already been re-located by engineers of the Bureau of
Public Roads of my Government, that the new location has been
accepted by the highway organization of your Government, and that
the latter has recently indicated, informally, a desire that my
Government furnish certain road-building equipment for use in the
construction work specified.
I am instructed to inform Your Excellency that careful consideration
has been given to the matter by the appropriate officials of my
Government and that the procedure suggested by the Guatemalan
authorities is acceptable to my Government.
Accordingly, I have been directed to state that my Government is
prepared to cooperate in the designated construction work by
supplying the necessary materials for, and erecting, under the
conditions that have governed in the cooperative construction of the
Tamazulapa bridge, the two specified small bridges along the
designated section of the Inter American Highway. It is also
understood that no customs of El Salvador, by supplying and
delivering the culvert pipe and other culvert materials needed along
the same section of the Highway, and by furnishing and delivering
the necessary road-building equipment
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for use in the construction work specified,
with the understanding that such equipment will not be used on any
roads not on the route of the Inter American Highway. It is also
understood that no customs charges shall be assessed against my
Government upon the entry into Guatemala of any of the specified
bridge or culvert materials or road-building equipment, that there
shall be no charges for passing these articles over wharves owned by
the Guatemalan Government or for transporting them on Government
owned vessels or railways, and that when on privately owned
railways, vessels or wharves only such charges shall be paid on such
articles as are paid on articles owned by the Guatemalan Government.
It is further understood that in the cooperative construction work
along the specified section of the Highway and in the transportation
of the articles supplied by my Government, Guatemala will furnish
all necessary rights of way, provide easements sufficient for needed
operations, and hold the United States harmless under local law for
all employees liability obligations.
If the proposal outlined immediately above is acceptable to your
Government, I would appreciate having you address to me a note in
reply stating that fact. On receipt of your reply I shall be pleased
to forward a copy of it to the Department of State of my Government.
As soon as your statement that the proposal is acceptable to your
Government shall have reached the Department of State, the necessary
steps will be taken to carry out my Government’s part of the
proposed construction work.
