Office of the Historian

417.00/334: Telegram

The Chargé in Nicaragua (Hanna) to the Secretary of State

Managua, June 25, 1929—3 p.m.
[Received 10:20 p.m.]

174. Department’s 92, June 20, 6 p.m. In view of the seeming impossibility to create the Claims Commission at this time under the law [Page 683] of December 3rd, 1926, President Moncada proposes that a temporary commission be created by Executive decree, composed of two Nicaraguan members, one Liberal and the other Conservative, to be selected by the Executive from candidates nominated by the respective parties, and one American member to be selected by the Department of State. The functions of the commission will be advisory only and are to receive and consider claims yet to be presented and prepare them for final adjudication by the Claims Commission to be created in accordance with a new law to be enacted at the next session of the Nicaraguan Congress. The American member will receive a salary of ten thousand dollars a year and his traveling expenses coming to and returning from Nicaragua. He will be paid from available funds until the Nicaraguan Congress can provide otherwise.

The decree creating the commission will contain the following provisions covering suggestions made by the Department from time to time in this connection:

1.
No award of the commission will be valid unless concurred in by the American member of the commission.
2.
The commission will be authorized to deal with claims arising up to the date of the reconvening of the commission.
3.
The jurisdiction of the commission will be extended to include
(a)
Claims for losses in the Departments of Rio Grande and Prinzapolka;
(b)
Claims by persons or companies suffering losses in all Departments where outlaws have operated, as the present law refers only to inhabitants of these departments;
(c)
All pending obligations of the Nicaraguan Government arising since October 25, 1925, as the result of the civil strife in Nicaragua;
(d)
Claims for personal injury.

If the foregoing arrangement is satisfactory to the Department, the Nicaraguan Government will draft the decree and will submit it for the Department’s consideration before it is issued here.

The foregoing has been prepared in consultation with President Moncada and has received his approval. I favor the creation of the commission at this time. It can do useful work, the American member will doubtless continue on the commission to be created later, and much is gained by the acceptance now of point 1 mentioned above.

Hanna