815.00/3077a supp.: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commissioner in the Dominican Republic (Welles)
2. Supplementing Department’s April 9, 4 p.m. The Department desires that you should proceed at once to Tegucigalpa and ascertain what steps can most profitably be taken to establish peace. You may exercise your friendly offices on behalf of this Government alone if that step seems advisable to save time and avoid other difficulties.
The Department has today received the following telegram dated April 9 from the American Minister at Guatemala:
“The President of Guatemala told me today that mediation in Honduras is a duty, that the United States should participate, that he prefers participation by all republics bordering on Honduras but that if either believes that moment is not opportune then Guatemala would be happy to act in conjunction with the United States. Repeated Salvador and Nicaragua.”
The Department has replied as follows:
“The Department earnestly desires to be of assistance in establishing peace in Honduras, and the Honorable Sumner Welles is being sent as the President’s special representative to offer friendly offices for this purpose. You may inform President Orellana of this fact and say that while this Government has received most sympathetically President Orellana’s suggestion it would prefer to postpone any decision upon a definite course of action until it receives a report from Mr. Welles, who will reach Puerto Cortes on April 12. Welles is being instructed to recommend whether it would be better, in order to avoid loss of time and other difficulties, for this Government to act alone in exercising its friendly offices, or whether it would be preferable that the Central American countries should participate in a joint offer of friendly offices. If he decides upon the latter course he will communicate with the Department, and the [Page 303] Department, if it concurs, will authorize you to extend to the Government of Guatemala an invitation to act with the United States”.
If you consider it preferable that the Central American countries should participate in any effort of friendly offices, you will at once inform the Department, which will instruct the Legations at Managua, San Salvador and Guatemala, to cooperate with you and to extend an invitation for joint action with this Government. It does not appear necessary to include Costa Rica, which has shown little interest in proposals for friendly offices. The Department fears, however, that any effort at joint action with the Central American countries would result in loss of time, and would possibly create complications due to the fact that Guatemala is thought to sympathize with the Arias faction, and Nicaragua with the Carias faction. On the other hand, the Department desires to show a courteous regard for the Central American Governments and particularly for the Government of Guatemala which has been very active in trying to find means to compose Honduran difficulties. Furthermore, you may find that your efforts would be more successful if seconded by the Central American neighbors of Honduras. It leaves this matter to your judgment.
There are two American warships in the Gulf of Fonseca, one of which could be used for the purpose of holding a conference on neutral ground if desired. You are authorized to offer one of the warships for this purpose if you find it advisable.
The Department must also leave to you the character of the solution to be proposed, but it desires that you should bear in mind the importance of bringing about the eventual establishment of a Government in Honduras which can properly be recognized by the United States. In a public declaration of June 30, 1923,3 this Government stated that its attitude with respect to the recognition of new governments in Central America would be consonant with the provisions of Article II of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity signed at Washington in 1923.4 Under the circumstances in Honduras it would appear that the most appropriate solution would be either (1) the election of a constitutional President by the existing Congress, if that can be arranged, or (2) the establishment of a provisional government of such a character as to give assurance that new elections could be held under conditions of freedom and fairness. The Department, however, will not make recognition by this Government conditional upon any particular solution so long as the [Page 304] new administration could be defended as constitutionally established and fairly representative of the will of the people. It would, in fact, be prepared to give an appropriate indication of its sympathy and moral support to any provisional government which gave satisfactory evidence of an intention to reestablish constitutional order.
Please keep the Department fully informed of all steps taken. The Department desires that you should work in close cooperation with Minister Morales, who has conducted the affairs of the Legation satisfactorily under exceedingly trying and difficult conditions. Mr. Morales has been informed that the Department is sending you to Honduras, not because of any lack of confidence in him, but because it seems necessary to have two properly qualified representatives of this Government on the ground, so that Mr. Morales himself may remain in Tegucigalpa to protect American lives and property there, and because the Department realizes that his perfectly proper compliance with the Department’s instructions has possibly created enmities toward him personally which would make more difficult any efforts on his part at mediation.
The President has designated you as his personal representative.
- See telegram no. 26, June 30, 1923, to the Minister in Honduras, Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 432.↩
- Conference on Central American Affairs, Washington, December 4, 1922–February 7, 1923 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1923), p. 287.↩