715.1715/1454
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
Dr. Cáceres, newly appointed Minister of Honduras, called to see me today to present his respects in his new capacity. I told him what great pleasure it gave me to welcome such an old friend, who had been in Washington for so many years, as Minister of his country.
I asked Dr. Cáceres if he had any information with regard to the boundary dispute between his country and Nicaragua because I wondered whether he felt that any satisfactory progress had been made during the course of the visit to Tegucigalpa in conversations between the President of Nicaragua and the President of Honduras. Dr. Cáceres professed complete ignorance of what might have transpired in those conversations. He said, however, that he believed from communications that he had received from his Government that any formula for a solution that might be proposed, provided it evaded the difficulty of declaring void the arbitral award of the King of Spain, would offer a ground for solution not unacceptable in principle to his [Page 169] Government. I asked the Minister who in his opinion was really in charge, on behalf of his Government, of these boundary negotiations. He told me that while Señor Lainez had a good deal to say about it, he nevertheless believed that the final authority was the present Foreign Minister, Señor Aguirre. I told the Minister that I hoped he and his Government would bear in mind the fact that this Government was always ready to do whatever it could, provided both Nicaragua and Honduras so desired, to facilitate a friendly solution and that we were gladly continuing our participation in the Mediation Commission with the hope that the Commission might prove successful in assisting the two Governments in reaching a final and equitable adjustment of the controversy.