711.1711/1: Telegram
The Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:05 p.m.]
55. Full text of two notes proposing treaty went forward by today’s mail. A résumé of the proposal appears in Diaz’s press declaration today. Diaz laid these proposals before the Nicaraguan Congress [Page 476] today where they instantly met with approval as they have already from leading Conservatives.
Many prominent Liberals who have discussed the proposed treaty with me frankly favor the idea, providing their party interests are safeguarded. They intimate that, while there may be much criticism by Liberal leaders out of the country exploiting anti-American sentiment and playing to the Latin American gallery, such criticism will not reflect the inner feeling of the Liberal party in Nicaragua as a whole, who after all want peace with guarantees. While they might as a matter of pecuniary [sic] pride not wish to associate themselves openly with such a plan fostered by the Conservative Party they will view its realization with satisfaction if as it now appears further revolutions will prove futile. A small delegation of the most prominent Liberals leaders is expected to go to Matiguas soon with safe conduct but unaccompanied by Conservatives to confer with Moncada76 there and persuade him to enter into an arrangement with Diaz or abandon the revolution and allow Diaz to work out a solution. These Liberals desire to have the purpose of the contemplated mission kept from the general public for the time being.
The wording of the communication proposing the treaty with respect to an American military mission for the organization of the national guard has led the commanding officer of the Marine guard to express dissatisfaction and the desire that the marines be considered for the work. Diaz states that in his request he did not have in view any particular corps and that Army or Marine Corps officers would be equally acceptable for the mission. He feels very strongly however that in view of Latin American and Nicaraguan susceptibilities he should while proposing all the provisions and guarantees of the Piatt amendment77 not ask for a Legation guard or a Marine occupation force or anything that would appear to create a situation exactly similar to that in Haiti. He believes that with a treaty guaranteeing an adequate government and the assurance of American intervention in case of need therefor, the problem of public order can be solved by an American military mission in full charge of the national guard and without the presence in the country of a Marine Corps detachment. He thinks the mission would provide effective American control of the armed Nicaraguan forces and would be more agreeable to Nicaraguan pride and the critics of intervention to accomplish the objects in view by means of a military mission like those aiding Brazil, [Page 477] Chile, Salvador and other Latin American Republics than to achieve the same results through officers connected with a Marine Corps detachment more or less permanently in the country and not having the status of a military mission.
- Gen. José Maria Moncada, Minister of War and Marine in the Sacasa regime at Puerto Cabezas and commander of the Liberal forces.↩
- See treaty between the United States and Cuba, signed May 22, 1903, Foreign Relations, 1904, p. 243.↩