715.1715/1430
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Venezuelan Ambassador29 called to see me this morning. The Ambassador said that in his last conversation with the President the latter had expressed his urgent desire to visit Venezuela once more and that he hoped that his program would make it possible for him to make such a visit before long. The Ambassador told me that he had communicated this statement of the President to President López-Contreras and that he had now received a message from his President [Page 161] saying that nothing would give the Government and people of Venezuela greater satisfaction and pleasure than to have the President visit Venezuela and that he earnestly hoped that the President would find it possible to make such a visit in the near future. I told the Ambassador that I would be happy to transmit this message to the President.
The Ambassador then said that he had had the occasion the other day of talking with the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and that Dr. Cordero Reyes had expressed the feeling of the Nicaraguan Government that the mediation proceedings between Nicaragua and Honduras were dragging on in a very unsatisfactory way and asked whether it would not be possible for negotiations to be resumed and expedited. The Ambassador said that of course, as I knew, certain difficulties had now arisen because of the bad feeling which existed between the Venezuelan and Costa Rican Foreign Offices as a result of the failure of Costa Rica at the Lima Conference to abide by the assurances which it had given Venezuela to support Caracas as the seat for the next inter-American conference. The Ambassador said that as a result of this incident the Venezuelan Legation in Central America had been moved from Costa Rica to Guatemala and the Venezuelan representative on the Mediation Commission, Dr. Rodríguez, had been told not to attend the meeting of the Mediation Commission were such meeting to be held in San José. The Ambassador further said that when Dr. Rodríguez and Dr. Corrigan had expressed their desire to have a meeting of the Mediation Commission held in Panama, the Costa Rican Foreign Minister had refused to attend the meeting in that city on the pretext that until the boundary incident between Panama and Costa Rica had been settled he could not appropriately visit Panama.
The Ambassador then inquired what my feeling in the matter might be. I said that in the first place I deeply regretted to learn of the friction which had arisen between the Venezuelan and Costa Rican Foreign Offices and that if there were anything this Government could do to smooth matters over in order that the misunderstanding might be eliminated, we would be only too happy to do what we could in the matter. The Ambassador seemed much pleased with this suggestion and said that he would communicate with his Foreign Minister, Dr. Gil Borges, and advise me of the latter’s feeling with regard thereto.
I then said that with regard to the procedure of the Mediation Commission I had myself talked at some length with President Somoza and Dr. Cordero Reyes and had obtained the very definite impression that President Somoza felt that when he visited Honduras next month some basis for an agreement between the two countries might arise from his personal conversations with President Carias and it seemed consequently that we might let matters rest until we learned whether these conversations gave any ground for optimism as to the finding [Page 162] of a solution. I said that it seemed to me that immediately thereafter the members of the Mediation Commission should have a meeting and that I hoped they then would agree to make personal visits to Managua and Tegucigalpa which I had always believed was the proper procedure to follow. The Ambassador then inquired whether this Government would be willing to have a meeting of the Mediation Commission held in Washington. I said that of course in principle the hospitality of this Government was always available for meetings of this kind which were intended to find solutions by pacific methods of difficulties arising between the various American republics, but that in this case I thought it would be very unwise for such a suggestion to be made unless the Government of Costa Rica sincerely desired that such a step be taken and officially advised us that they desired that a meeting be held in Washington. I said I knew by experience that Costa Rica was very jealous of her prestige in having her own capital the seat for the mediation conferences and that I thought it would be inexpedient for this Government to give any indication with regard to its willingness to have Washington as the seat of the next meeting until and unless Costa Rica informed us that she so desired. The Ambassador said he understood this situation fully and thought we had better await the results of President Somoza’s visit to Honduras before deciding anything further.
As he left the Ambassador again urged that the experts desired by the Venezuelan Government for customs and related questions be selected and sent to Venezuela without further delay. He said that the Venezuelan Congress adjourned the 4th of July and that as he had told me before it was indispensable that these experts be selected and if possible be present in Venezuela before that date. I told the Ambassador I would look into the matter at once and do what I could to expedite a solution.
- Diógenes Escalante.↩