715.1715/238a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Honduras (Morales)
6. Your 7, January 16, 10 a.m.57
Informal conversations have been held by the American Delegation to the Central American Conference with the Delegates of Honduras and Nicaragua, relative to the boundary dispute between the two Republics, in the belief that the present is a propitious moment for the settlement of this long-standing controversy. As a result of these conversations, agreement was reached by both Delegations, subject to approval by their Governments, upon a draft protocol providing for the submission of the controversy by the Governments concerned to the arbitral decision of the Secretary of State. This protocol, which the Honduranean Delegation is today cabling to the President of Honduras, is as follows:
“The Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua having accented the friendly mediation which the Department of State of the United States offered in 1918 in the controversy which had arisen between them regarding the arbitral award of the King of Spain rendered on December 23, 1906, and having been unable to reach an agreement [Page 363] as to the manner of settling the controversy, have determined to ask that the mediation of the Department of State be transformed into arbitral proceedings and have decided to request the Secretary of State of the United States that he take into consideration all of the antecedents of the matter in dispute and that he determine the just solution of the controversy.
The Governments above named agree that they will accept the solution proposed by the Secretary of State of the United States as final and without appeal.”
You may confidentially advise the President that the Government of Nicaragua has instructed its Delegation to accept the protocol as proposed. You will also state to the President that it is hoped by this Government that the Government of Honduras will be disposed to accept the solution offered in order that this controversy of many years’ standing may now be finally settled. You may call his attention to the excellent impression which would be created if announcement could be made at the closing plenary session of the Central American Conference that the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua had determined to submit their controversy to arbitration.
- Not printed.↩