814.51/571: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Guatemala (Geissler)
22. Department’s 5, January 24, 6 p.m., your despatch 1401, January 27.3
Following reply has been made to British Ambassador’s request for good offices:4
“While the Government of the United States cannot undertake to advise the Guatemalan Government regarding its action with respect to the specific proposal understood to have been made by the bondholders, I am instructing the American Minister to assist in any proper way in arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the matter, and to inform the Guatemalan Government that the Government of the United States would be glad to see a suitable settlement in the interest of both parties.”
[Paraphrase.] In carrying out this instruction you should be very careful to make no formal representations. You should restrict yourself to indicating orally the manifest advantages to the Government of Guatemala which would accrue from a settlement of the Guatemalan debt question. You should be particularly careful not to give the impression that the Government of the United States is intervening in any way in this controversy or that it is trying to bring any pressure on the Government of Guatemala.
In view of the terms of the 1913 agreement,5 the Department would not be inclined to support the pending proposals of the bondholders. The Department is mailing to you for your information a detailed history and analysis of the matter which was prepared in the Department.6 [End paraphrase.]
- Neither printed.↩
- The note to the British Ambassador was dated Apr. 11, 1927; not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1913, p. 571.↩
- Not printed.↩