for the option stipulated in the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty,8 in recom-
pense for the negative effects produced by the aforementioned treaty.
My hopes were not in vain, as you Sir, gave all attention and accept-
ance to my suggestions, and gave impetus to this by sending American
Army Engineers to make the necessary preliminary studies, before
starting the actual work.
  Unfortunately, the progress of the realization of the task of the
canalization of the San Juan River, and your loyal and noble inten-
tion to finish this work, encountered obstacles by the present war,
which has been provoked by ambition, hatred and the spirit of de-
struction of moral and material values, which Mankind conquered
only after centuries of long patient labor. A war which treacherously
hurt the noble American people, which [with] whom my people and
I are solidly united by the ideal of democracy, which you with great
courage and frankness sustain in this world, hoping for the redemp-
tion of oppressed nations and justice for the future of Humanity.
  In this condition, Nicaragua, deprived of the fluvial route to the
Atlantic Coast, and confronted by the acute problem of the isolation
of that region, I consider the only solution to be the obtaining, of any
rapid or permanent means of communication, which connects the At-
lantic with the Pacific Coast.
  With this object in view, my Government proposes the construc-
tion in the shortest possible time, of a first class highway, starting
from San Benito on the Pan American Highway and terminating
at El Bluff, port on the Atlantic Coast, conditioned to receive vessels
of deep draught. On this highway intense work is already going on
and large sums of money have been spent in the preparation of bridges
and opening of the jungle. This highway, aside from being of great
economic, political and social value, is also of great strategic impor-
tance for the Continental defense, Nicaragua, and also for the defense
of the Panama Canal. With this work Nicaragua will contribute
a valuable cooperation and assistance to the common task to end that
drama which the world faces in these trying days.
  But Sir, as my country lacks the sufficient resources to finish the
work on this highway, and always trusting in the high spirit of justice
and the good will which you have demonstrated in respect to Nica-
ragua and the Government over which I preside, I permit myself to
propose a collaboration on the part of the United States of America,
to supply the funds or resources so necessary for the construction of
the aforementioned highway to the Atlantic, in substitution of the
projected work of the canalization of the San Juan River. These
funds or resources, will be credited to Nicaragua by the United States
of America, following the same procedure as that of the projected
  'Convention between the United States and Nicaragua signed August 5, 1914,
Foreign Relations, 1916, p. 849.



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