715.1715/1585: Telegram
The Minister in Costa Rica (Lane) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:07 p.m.]
353. My 336, November 15, 11 a.m. The Minister of Foreign Affairs sent for me last evening to read to me the letter which he proposes shortly to send to the Costa Rican Minister in Washington instructing Fernández as to the attitude of the Costa Rican Government regarding the expressed intention of Honduras to withdraw from the boundary mediation (the Honduran attitude is expressed in a note of October 9 from the Honduran Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Costa Rican Minister for Foreign Affairs which is virtually the same mutatis mutandis as the Honduran note to the Secretary of State of the same date72).
Echandi’s draft letter instructs Fernandez to suggest to the Department that the Mediation Commission inform the Government of Honduras that provided Honduras will not withdraw from the mediation the three mediating governments will make no suggestions as to the manner of determining the boundary to either Honduras or Nicaragua at least until the end of the war, the Government of Costa Rica being of the opinion that Honduran withdrawal at this moment [Page 267] would be a blow to inter-American solidarity. For this reason the Government considers it wiser to leave the determination of the boundary problem in statu quo until the general international danger has diminished.
Echandi said that there would be a preferable solution to the foregoing: for us to persuade Honduras for the international reasons stated above to defer taking action until the present international crisis has passed. He expressed the opinion that we are the only power which could successfully exert influence on the Honduran Government in this matter. He said that he will send suitable instructions to the Costa Rican Minister in Venezuela as soon as he learns what our views are as to the most advisable procedure.