715.1715/1493½
Forty-second Meeting Held by the Mediation Commission in the Boundary Dispute Between the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua on April 29, 1940
We, the undersigned members of the Mediation Commission in the Boundary Dispute between the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua, Dr. Frank P. Corrigan, Representative of the Government of the United States of America, Dr. José Santiago Rodríguez, Representative of the Government of the United States of Venezuela, and Licenciado Tobías Zúñiga Montúfar, Representative of the Government of Costa Rica and Chairman of the Commission, meeting at San José, Costa Rica, on April twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and forty (1940), have, after examination of what has taken place and of what has been done by the Commission, agreed upon the following:
As the Commission realizes the necessity of doing everything in its power to try to accomplish the purpose for which it was created and as it is desirous of doing so in the most satisfactory and friendly way as respects the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua and without the slightest ground for friction between the Commission and the Governments of the said Republics, it has seemed to it best to take advantage of the forthcoming visit of Dr. Frank P. Corrigan to Washington, for which city he is to leave tomorrow, entrusting to him, in behalf of the Commission, the following activities: In conformity with the Department of State at Washington, to the approval of which the plan will be submitted, Dr. Corrigan will have an interview with the Diplomatic Representative of Honduras6 for the purpose of trying to persuade him to write to his Government and obtain from it its consent to a scientific survey, including aerial photography, of the zone through which the Rio Coco or Segovia and its tributaries flow, from its outlet into the Atlantic to Portillo de Teotecancinte.
The most important part of this decision of the Mediation Commission which is entrusted to the well-known skill and ability of Dr. Corrigan, consists in this: as it is known from notes from the Honduran Chancellery, which the Mediation Commission has seen, that that Chancellery has been refusing its approval of such scientific and aerial-photographic survey on the erroneous understanding that, if it should grant it, the juridical position which Honduras has been maintaining before the Commission might be compromised, Dr. Corrigan must endeavor to explain the true desire of the Mediation Commission which is nothing more than to have exact information as to the actual geography of that region, since it is convinced that neither Honduras [Page 448] nor Nicaragua is acquainted with it, that it may be possible for it, once the actual situation is proved, to be in a position to be able to complete its task. Dr. Corrigan will clearly explain to the Diplomatic Representative of Honduras that, in giving his consent to the above-mentioned aerial-photographic examination, his [country’s] present juridical position will not be changed in the least, nor will it be assumed that the Government of Honduras is abandoning that position. Dr. Corrigan is fully empowered to talk with the Representative of Honduras and to discuss the form in which the latter might wish the aforesaid proposal of the Commission to be stated and he will submit the said form to the other two members, for their approval.
What the Commission may thereupon approve shall be communicated by its Chairman, Licenciado Zúñiga Montúfar, to the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua, and the Commission will examine the expediency of fixing a date on which the next plenary meeting should be held.
- José Santiago Rodriguez
- Tobías Zúñiga Montúfar
- Frank P. Corrigan
- Julian R. Cáceres, Honduran Minister in the United States.↩