Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The American Republics, Volume V

817.6176/21: Telegram

The Ambassador in Nicaragua (Stewart) to the Secretary of State

Managua, July 31, 1943—3 p.m.
[Received August 1—2 a.m.]

442. With further reference to my telegram No. 440, of July 30, 7 p.m., I called upon the Foreign Minister at noon today. I informed him that Mr. Michael Brown, representative of Wrigley, had received a telegram from his subcontractor at San Carlos complaining of the confusion and interference which would result from the establishment of another set of rubber purchasing camps and commissaries along the Coco River; that Mr. Brown appealed to Mr. Apodaca of Rubber Development; that the latter organization recognized the undesirability of having two rubber groups working in the same region and that in fact there had even been an arrangement to avoid such conflicts. I then informed the Foreign Minister that Apodaca after consulting Corson and Holt,²¹ both of whom are in Guatemala, had today dispatched Mr. Reynolds by special chartered airplane to the Coco River that he was accompanied by Mr. Donnelly who is López’ immediate superior in Honduras and who fortunately happened to be in Managua; that they would have to make the trip up the river by boat but that they expected to reach López tomorrow morning; and that they bore a letter from Apodaca instructing López in Corson’s name to close all his commissaries and rubber camps between the Pator [Patuca] and Coco Rivers immediately and to proceed to Tegucigalpa for further orders.²²

The Foreign Minister was extremely pleased. Upon my departure he thanked me in his own name and in that of the Nicaraguan Government, indicated his belief that this would close the incident and expressed relief since he had feared that the situation would be much more complicated. The incident would thus appear to be well on the way to a satisfactory conclusion purely on the basis of interference with Wrigley’s operations south of the Coco River and without directly involving the Governments concerned.

Repeated to Tegucigalpa.

Stewart

21. Ernest G. Holt, special representative in Honduras of the Rubber Development Corporation.
22. The plan, as carried out and described by Ambassador Stewart in his despatch No. 1389 of August 11, 1943, was altered by Reynolds and Donnelly with Embassy approval so that the order to close the rubber camps was not given by letter but issued orally to López by Donnelly, as his immediate superior in the Chicle Development Corporation, without explanation on his part and without involving the Rubber Development Corporation (817.6176/28).