715.1715/1168: Telegram
The Special Representative of the President ( Corrigan ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 7—9:15 a.m.]
63. At a meeting of the Mediation Commission on Monday April 4, following instructions in the Department’s telegram of April 1, I brought up the matter of a recess, but the suggestion was not welcomed. The Commission decided to confer semi-formally with the Honduran delegation on Wednesday April 6. After a 2-hour session today with [Page 253] the Honduran delegation the only result obtained was a reaffirmation of their well-known stand on the 1906 award. After the departure of the Hondurans I again suggested the appropriateness of a recess, and this time after their failure to move the Hondurans my colleagues were more receptive. A session will be held tomorrow with the Nicaraguan delegation, when I believe agreement to a recess can be obtained.
The Costa Rican Foreign Minister stated after the meeting that his Government would be embarrassed politically by a failure and would like to withdraw from the League after placing responsibility on the intransigency of the Honduran Government. He assured me that the President of Costa Rica feels the same. Even with a prior understanding that the Commission should not make any commitments at this morning’s meeting it was difficult for the Costa Rican member of the Commission to refrain from putting Honduras definitely in that position. In his unsuccessful attempt to modify rigidity of the Honduran position he made it clear that in his opinion and that of the President of Costa Rica the Honduran stand did not admit of mediation and there was at least a covert threat of possible withdrawal by Costa Rica. He alleged that the acceptance by Honduras of the tender of good offices for a solution of the dispute (implying conciliation) and their present demand for execution of the King of Spain’s award as the only solution acceptable were inconsistent. From what he said it would be quite possible for the Hondurans to consider their case prejudiced before the Mediation Commission; an interpretation which they may have reported.
The attitude of the Costa Rican Government imperils the continuance of mediation and in my opinion makes almost imperative an interruption of this phase of the conferences. I shall therefore press tomorrow for the recess which the Department has advised.