Mr. Olney to Mr. Coxe.
Washington, December 16, 1896.
Sir: A number of dispatches from you, written prior to your departure on leave and relating to the plan and details of the organization of the Greater Republic of Central America, have been received and duly considered. Action upon them has necessarily awaited the understanding which I have sought with the appointed envoy of the representative Diet of the Greater Republic.
I now take the earliest opportunity before your return to your post to inform you that the President will shortly recognize the Greater Republic of Central America, constituted pursuant to stipulations of the treaty of Amalpa of June 20, 1895, between the Republics of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador, and will enter into diplomatic relations therewith, giving such recognition and entering upon such relations upon the distinct understanding that the responsibility of each of those Republics to the United States of America remains wholly unaffected.
What changes in the diplomatic representation of the United States in Central America this new association of the three Republics may entail has not yet been determined, and is receiving careful consideration. You will, however, be duly instructed on this point as soon as the details can be determined, and meanwhile you will be governed in your relations with Honduras and the Diet by the general tenor of the understanding above recited, namely, that the responsibility of those Republics to the United States of America remains wholly unaffected by the new association.
I am, etc.,