817.00/5302: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Nicaragua (Munro)
28. Referring to your No. 44, January 23, 11 a.m. The Department concurs in your present conclusion regarding the matter referred to in the first paragraph of your telegram. The Department feels, however, that it should be kept in mind as of possible assistance as the situation develops.
The Department cannot urge too strongly that you continue to exert every effort to bring about an adjustment on the basis of an electoral law, redrafted, if need be, so as to save the face of the opposition without impairing effective American supervisory control of the election. The door should not be closed to negotiations along these lines. It may well be that certain matters of relatively little importance so far as our attitude is concerned, such as were indicated in our telegram No. 23, January 20, 6 p.m., can be safely embodied in the law. According to advice from Dr. Dodds, ordinary electoral regulations of a comparatively innocuous kind originally designed to be left to the electoral commission might easily be embodied in the law itself. As things now stand, we suppose that time will work in our favor, and that informal negotiations should be encouraged and continued to the limit of possibility.