810.154/3102
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Cabot)
| Participants: | General Robins,7 Assistant Chief of Engineers |
| Colonel Person8 | |
| Major Mage9 | |
| Mr. Bonsal10 | |
| Mr. Cabot |
Mr. Bonsal and Mr. Cabot called on General Robins to express their concern at reports which had been received from our missions regarding the cessation of construction on the pioneer highway project. Mr. Bonsal pointed out that the State Department had not contemplated that Colonel Kelton would communicate the War Department’s intentions to the local Governments until a plan for the orderly liquidation of the project had been drawn up and approved. General Robins replied that such a decision could not long be kept secret. To this Mr. Bonsal agreed; he intimated that it was nevertheless unfortunate that it had come out before we had had a chance to discuss our plans with the local Governments, and mentioned a telegram which we had just received from Panama stating that work would stop September 30.11
Mr. Bonsal then said that he had understood that there would be no definite curtailment of the work until the plan had been evolved. General Robins pointed out that Colonel Kelton had a $40,000,000 ceiling on his expenditures, and that if this ceiling were not to be exceeded Colonel Kelton had no choice but to stop work almost immediately. He said that he thought Colonel Kelton wanted to put through some sort of road in the more northerly republics, and that to do this and to undertake the very expensive liquidation of the project he must retrench immediately in Costa Rica and Panama. Mr. Bonsal said that he was very much perturbed at the fact that the War Department had repeatedly granted extra allotments to keep the highway construction going but now was apparently unwilling to do so even though it was important to our relations with the Central American countries. Later he mentioned that much of this extra money had been necessitated because of the lack of priorities, which did not seem as valid an excuse for extra allotments as the question of our relations with the countries traversed. General Robins said that he fully appreciated this, but that the War Department’s orders precluded an expenditure of more than $40,000,000, and that only General McNarney12 could authorize a higher expenditure. Mr. Bonsal pointed out that the total cost of the project would probably not be known in any case for some six months, but General Robins countered that this was the reason it was so important to remain well below the ceiling now.
Mr. Cabot read excerpts from the War Department’s directives. He pointed out that they contemplated a cessation of work only after an orderly plan had been worked out, and that the State Department had understood that such a plan would be evolved before work [Page 80] stopped, General Robins said that the ceiling allotment would, almost certainly be exceeded if Colonel Kelton waited for the preparation of such a plan. General Robins in the course of his remarks made it clear that he personally was in agreement with the expressed State Department viewpoint. He added that he had made almost precisely the same recommendations to the General Staff, but that he had been over-ruled.
Mr. Bonsal expressed the need for more factual information. General Robins and Major Mage agreed that the latter should telephone Colonel Kelton to secure it. (Later Major Mage made note of the specific points regarding which Mr. Bonsal wanted information.)
In the course of the conversation, various fragmentary references were made to the progress of the work in the respective countries.
- Gen. Thomas M. Robins.↩
- Col. John L. Person, Chief of Military Construction Branch, Army Corps of Engineers.↩
- Maj. Jack D. Mage, Army Corps of Engineers.↩
- Philip W. Bonsal, Chief of the Division of the American Republics.↩
- Telegram No. 500, not printed.↩
- Lt. Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, Deputy Chief of Staff, United States Army.↩