File No. 815.51/250a.
The Secretary of State to certain members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.1
Washington, May 3, 1911.
My Dear Senator: Senator Cullom tells me that the Honduras Convention, which was favorably reported by the Foreign Relations Committee at the last session, is to be reconsidered by the Committee in order that the important principle involved may receive the study of the new members. I could not overstate the fundamental importance of that principle. Briefly stated it is this:
“Shall the Government of the United States make American capital an instrumentality to secure financial stability, and hence prosperity and peace, to the more backward republics in the neighborhood of the Panama Canal; and in order to give that measure of security which alone would induce capital to be such instrumentality, without imposing too great a burden upon the countries concerned, shall this Government assume toward the customs collections a relationship only great enough for this purpose, a relationship, however, the moral effect and potentialities of which result in preventing the customs revenues of such republics from being seized as the means of carrying on devastating and unprincipled revolutions.”
For years the Department of State has had to deal with turbulent conditions in Central America and the Caribbean, which the Panama Canal, the extension of commerce, and the enterprise of our citizens cause to affect this country more and more. After the most mature study this Department is firmly convinced of the wisdom of the policy involved in the Honduras Convention, a policy which in its nature is broad, national and non-partisan. The Government of Nicaragua has asked the good offices of the United States to bring about an arrangement similar to that in the case of Honduras, so that in the near future the principle will have to be passed upon. I feel that upon the decision will depend the question whether the United States can be a useful and beneficent factor north of the Panama Canal, or whether conditions of turbulence will cause this Government, as in the past, frequently to have to take action both futile and troublesome.
Printed copies of the Honduras Convention and of the Bankers’ Contract and Fiscal Agreement, which when approved will receive the protection of the Convention, are in the hands of the Committee on Foreign Relations. In earnestly asking your thoughtful consideration of this important subject, I take the liberty of enclosing herewith, as of suggestive value, the following additional materials;2 editorial from The Washington Post of January 25, 1911; article from The Washington Star of February 26, 1911; a few rough notes prepared by this Department; financial notes concerning the Republic of Honduras; a hearing before your Committee2; a memorandum prepared in the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War [Page 582] Department1; an article appearing in The New York Sun of January 28, 1911; and a copy of the Report of the Receiver General of Dominican Customs for 1910.
I am [etc.]