815.0145/1
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Honduras ( Erwin )
Sir: The Department has received your despatch no. 32 of October 1, 1937 referring to previous correspondence concerning the reported search of the British motor vessel Caoba by a Honduran gunboat. You invite attention to the following provision of Article 153 of the Honduran Constitution of 1936:
“To the State appertains the full dominion, inalienable and inprescriptible, over the waters of the territorial seas to a distance of twelve kilometers from the lowest tide mark …”
It is desired that you advise the Honduran Foreign Office in writing that your Government reserves all rights of whatever nature with regard to any effects upon American interests from an enforcement of this Constitutional provision so far as it asserts that the territorial waters of Honduras extend beyond the three-mile limit.
Very truly yours,