817.00/5109: Telegram
The Chargé in Nicaragua (Munro) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:00 p.m.]
310. Department’s 166, October 28, 4 p.m. It will be impractical for many months and possibly for several years to establish the guardia on the east coast because even the full amount provided for in the pending agreement17 will not make possible the assumption of control over the entire Republic. As fully explained in my telegram of October 15, 4 p.m.,18 it will be impossible to establish the guardia even in the most important of the western provinces in time to be of use in connection with next year’s elections unless additional funds are provided at once. I cannot sufficiently emphasize the fact that this is the most urgent problem now confronting us here. Our experience with the approaching municipal elections has made it clear that there can be no real freedom of suffrage next year unless there is an efficient police force under American direction. The guardia should be established in the western departments first, not only because its presence in the more populous districts will be necessary during the elections, but also because its establishment on the east coast will present special difficulties arising from difference of race and language and lack of means of communication and will probably cost approximately $200,000 per annum more than the amount provided for in the guardia agreement.
[Paraphrase.] The suggestion of Moncada offers no solution for the existing difficulties on the coast. It is my opinion that his objections to Estrada are specious and are intended merely to cover his desire to obtain political advantage from the control of certain appointments and perhaps from the discontent arising from present conditions which naturally reacts against the Conservative administration. I do not think that Estrada is working for the Conservatives because the American consul at Bluefields informed me that two of Estrada’s sons were arrested and threatened on October 19 by the Conservative police for circulating a proclamation issued by Moncada. I was reliably informed that the recent temporary administration of Estrada was conspicuously impartial. Colonel Gulick [Page 406] who made a trip to the east coast recently believes him to be the best man for the position by far. I have made cautious inquiry among Liberals in Managua and I do not believe that Sandoval would start an uprising unless told to do so by Moncada. It is clear that under an effective administration trouble among the natives would not be so likely to occur as it is under existing conditions. [End paraphrase.]