817.51/1886: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Nicaragua (Munro)
[Paraphrase]
Washington, January 14,
1928—6 p.m.
16. Your telegram No. 24, January 13, 11 a.m.
- (1)
- The Department agrees that a duplication of effort should be avoided. What the Department has primarily desired from Dr. Cumberland is a recommendation as to the financial requirements and borrowing capacity of the Government of Nicaragua based on a careful financial and economic survey. The Department has not contemplated that Dr. Cumberland should prepare a financial plan, inasmuch as the Department is now discussing with the bankers a draft financial plan prepared by them. No definite conclusions have yet been reached, and the financial plan prepared by the bankers, which does not deal directly with financial requirements and borrowing capacity, would naturally be complemented by the recommendations of Dr. Cumberland.
- (2)
- The Department has been informed that President Diaz has had a conference with Dr. Cumberland, that you were present, and that certain possible arrangements between the Department and the Government of Nicaragua were discussed. If this be true, please inform Dr. Cumberland that the Department does not wish him to discuss such matters with officials of Nicaragua or to submit to them any report or recommendations without first definitely ascertaining the views of the Department.
- (3)
- In order that the Department may have before it at the earliest practicable moment the results of his survey of financial and economic needs, the best procedure, it seems, would be for him to complete the gathering of the various statistical and other data necessary for the formulation of his final recommendations, and not to postpone his departure from Nicaragua for the period needed to organize the data and prepare his report in final form. An additional consideration is the fact that the funds which the Department can allocate to the survey are distinctly limited.
Olds