Office of the Historian

715.1715/1445b: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Costa Rica (Hornibrook)

Washington, July 11, 1939—7 p.m.

34. For Ocheltree. Please convey the following message for Corrigan to Licenciado Zúñiga Montúfar and report his reply by telegraph.

“Are you agreeable to having Ocheltree proceed now to Tegucigalpa on the technical errand (i. e. explanation of geographic data to the Honduran Government) which we agreed to postpone until after President Somoza’s visit with President Carías?

If you see no objection I should like to have him proceed at once and then come to Washington for a conference before I depart for Venezuela.

A similar message has been sent to Dr. Rodríguez.”36

If neither commissioner objects (Bogotá will inform you direct), you are instructed to proceed at once to Tegucigalpa for the purpose indicated and proceed thence to Washington.

The Department plans to assign you temporarily to the Legation at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for a period of about 2 months while the Minister is on leave enabling you to return to San José before date of reconvening the Commission.

Ascertain Zúñiga’s reaction to setting October 1 as a tentative date for a preliminary meeting of the Commission (without the delegates) to formulate a program.

Hull
  1. Not printed. The Ambassador in Colombia replied that Dr. Rodríguez was entirely agreeable.↩