715.1715/1045
The Special Representative of the President
(Corrigan) to the Secretary of State
No. 36
San
José, December 11, 1937.
[Received
December 15.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit in
quintuplicate copy with translation of the text of the Pact of
Mutual Agreements entered into between Honduras and Nicaragua, which
was signed in the Reception Hall of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
at San José at 5:30 P.M. on December 10, 1937.
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure—Translation]
Text of the Pact of Mutual Offers Suggested
by the Mediation Commission
At the city of San José, Costa Rica in the Reception Hall of the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic at five o’clock in
the afternoon of December tenth, nineteen hundred and
thirty-seven, before the Mediation Commission in the present
conflict between the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua,
composed of the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the
Government of Costa Rica, Licenciado Tobías Zuñiga Montufar,
present Secretary of State in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
and President of the Commission, of the Government of the United
States of America, Doctor Frank P. Corrigan, and of the
Government of the United States of Venezuela, Doctor José
Santiago Rodriguez; having assembled the Plenipotentiary
Delegates of the Governments of the Republic of Honduras, Doctor
Silverio Laínez and Doctor Rómulo E. Durón, and of the Republic
of Nicaragua, Doctor Manuel Cordero Reyes, present Minister for
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Foreign Affairs,
and Doctor Carlos Cuadra Pasos; and after having presented their
respective credentials which were found in order; and both
delegations animated by a strong sentiment for concord and peace
and the same worthy desire that the motives which have caused
the present tension in the relations between the two sister
countries be removed and that the cordial relations which have
always existed and should continue to exist between the
Governments and people of both countries be reestablished, they
have agreed to accept, as in effect they accept and sign under
the good faith and honor of their respective governments, the
following Pact of Mutual Offers, respectively suggested by said
Mediation Commission:
- 1.
- A mutual offer of the Governments of Honduras and
Nicaragua to retire detachments or military units which
were not usually or normally maintained in the frontier
regions of both countries and in places near thereto,
prior to the first of August of the present year; and to
inform the Mediation Commission of the fulfillment of
this offer.
- 2.
- A mutual offer of both Governments to refrain from all
preparation for war and from all mobilization or
concentration of troops which are not usual or normal,
except in the case of troop mobilization that had for
its object the suppression of an internal armed
movement.
- 3.
- A mutual offer of both Governments to suspend
immediately, and for a period of six months from this
date, all purchases of arms, ammunition, apparatus and
other equipment of war, of any nature whatsoever.
Contracts already signed and which are being executed
are excluded from this offer.
- 4.
- A mutual offer of both Governments that military
airplanes shall not make flights over the frontier
regions of both countries, except in the case of a
revolution in said frontier places.
- 5.
- A mutual offer of both Governments that the
authorities of each country shall provide effective
protection according to law to the nationals of the
other country resident in its territory.
- 6.
- A mutual offer of both Governments to invite the
newspaper men, writers and managers of radio
broadcasting stations to cooperate in the sense of
preventing every kind of publication and radio
broadcasts tending to inflame the public sentiment of
each of the countries against the other, in order to
maintain and stimulate a spirit of conciliation and
serenity already spontaneously adopted by the reporters,
publishers and owners of radio broadcasting stations of
both countries.
- 7.
- A mutual offer of both Governments to prevent that in
each other’s territory, there be planning or fomenting
of revolutionary movements or whatsoever acts or thing
which may tend to disturb the peace in the territory of
the other, especially in the frontier regions.
- 8.
- A mutual offer of both Governments not to solve the
present conflict by armed means.
- 9.
- A mutual offer of both Governments to solve the
present conflict by pacific means as established by
International Law. This offer does not affect the
Honduran reservation made to the General Treaty of
Arbitration signed on January 5, 1929, in Washington, D.
C, United States of America.
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In witness whereof and in complete agreement we sign this Pact in
five copies of equal validity.63
Mediation Commission
Delegation of
Honduras
Delegation of Nicaragua
