815.00/3139: Telegram
The President’s Personal Representative in Honduras (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 30—1:40 p.m.]
14. At 10 o’clock this morning the delegates at the preliminary conference unanimously elected General Vincente Tosta Provisional President and signed the preliminary peace convention of which the following is the literal translation.
[Here follows the text of the preliminary agreement. For final text of the Pact of Amapala signed on May 3, see post, page 317.]
While the final session of the conference was continuing the troops of the revolution were entering the Capital having now, from advices received from the American Minister, complete control. The victory of the revolution does not in my opinion affect the validity of the agreement reached, signed as it is by the fully authorized delegates of both factions. Moreover the carrying out of this agreement will prevent long-drawn-out counterproposals, for the majority of the dictatorship troops have escaped from the Capital; it will avert a break between Carias and Ferrera which otherwise appears imminent; it will permit the neighboring Republics through their representatives at the final conference to declare their moral support of this Provisional Government; and most important of all it will assure the Department that the Provisional Government will be one to which can be accorded immediate moral support since it will be presided over by General Tosta who has no political antecedents nor ambitions, who remained loyal to the last constitutional government and only headed a revolution after the dictatorship was installed, and who is a man of sufficient energy and integrity to maintain order and to guarantee the holding of free elections. Equally important is the fact the Provisional Government constituted in accordance with this agreement will be installed by the vote of delegates representing all the political parties in Honduras and that all political parties will be represented in the Cabinet. I beg to request the Department’s approval of the steps taken and of the policy indicated above. I also request immediate authorization to state that a provisional government headed by General Tosta and constituted in accordance with the agreement above quoted will receive the moral support of the Government of the United States.
It is my hope that the first session of the full conference may take place April 30th.