810.154/5–346
The Ambassador in Guatemala (Kyle) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 16.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatch No. 810 of November 8, 194519 and to previous communications concerning expenditures made by the Government of Guatemala in continuation of the work on the International Highway of the Pacific in order that the Government of Guatemala might obtain full ownership to certain equipment left in Guatemala by the United States Army.
There is now enclosed a copy in translation of note No. 5995 of April 26, 1946,20 which has been received from the Guatemalan Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It will be recalled that the accounting forwarded under cover of the Embassy’s despatch No. 810 of November 8, 1945 showed that there was a balance of $16,065.23 to be accounted for in order that clear title to the equipment et cetera might be obtained, if the accounts should be approved. The enclosed note states that a balance was again made as of December 31, 1945, which purports to show that Guatemala has expended between November 1, 1943 and December 31, 1945 the sum of $1,644,916.07, while the value of the equipment which was left in Guatemala upon the cessation of work by the United States Army on the Ruta Militar de Emergencia21 was $1,508,257.60. The note, therefore, states that the Government [Page 178] had expended as of December 31 a total of $136,658.47 in excess of the amount that it was obliged to expend in order to obtain title to the equipment. …22
Respectfully yours,
Secretary of Embassy
- Not printed; it transmitted to the American Embassy a note No. 13241 of November 2, 1945, from the Guatemalan Ministry for Foreign Relations indicating that Guatemala had fulfilled its obligations to the United States Army Engineers to expend $1,508,257.60 (the value of equipment transferred) on the Pioneer Highway and requested a final accounting to indicate in documentary form that the Guatemalan Government had a completely clear title to all of the equipment (810.154/11–845). For the contract between the Corps of Engineers of the War Department and the Guatemalan Government, see instruction 518, May 17, 1944, to Guatemala, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. vii, p. 193.↩
- Not printed.↩
- The Emergency Military Route (RUME) later known as the International Highway of the Pacific (Carretera Internacional del Pacífico, CIPA).↩
- A supplemental United States-Guatemalan agreement signed on April 23, 1946, and approved by direction of the Under Secretary of War (Royall) on December 13, 1946 (transmitted to the Department in a memorandum of December 18, 1946 from the War Department) indicated that the depreciated book value of the equipment, etc., turned over to the Guatemalan Government amounted to $1,522,816.25; and that that Government, between October 15, 1943, and December 31, 1945, incurred expenses amounting to $1,644,916.07 in connection with the construction of the Highway and maintenance of completed segments thereof. The agreement provided, therefore, that Guatemala had complied in full with its commitments under the contract, and that in return therefor the United States relinquished any and all claims to ownership and/or control over the use or other disposition of the equipment (810.154/12–1846).↩