818.00/106½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am much obliged for this memorandum and entirely agree with Mr. Stabler’s conclusions.1 The sooner the intimation he suggests giving to the American [United?] Fruit Company is given the better. Their implication lies on the very surface of all the circumstances. A word to Mr. Untermyer, who seems to speak as their attorney, might give them immediate pause.
I think the telegram to San José ought to be made a little stronger.2 It ought to instruct the Minister to say to Tinoco that no government set up by him will be recognized, and no government which he takes part in originating or organizing, and that no contracts made by any citizen of the United States with such a government will be recognized by this Government as valid. We cannot be too explicit or too downright. I hope the message will go at the earliest possible moment.
Faithfully Yours,
- Memorandum by J. H. Stabler, Division of Latin American Affairs, Department of State; not printed.↩
- For the telegram as sent, see telegram of Feb. 9, 1917, to the Minister in Costa Rica, Foreign Relations, 1917, p. 307.↩