text: Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1931, Volume I
  The Minister in Nicaragua (Hanna) to the Secretary of State
  [Received September 12.]
  Sir: Supplementing my telegrams No. 125, June 30, 3 p.m. and No. 134, July 8, 3 p.m., I have the honor to transmit herewith copy and translation of the Protocol of Agreement of the Boundary Question with Honduras, as finally passed by the Nicaraguan Congress on June 25, 1931, and published in La Gaceta of August 3, 1931. A copy of this despatch has been sent to the American Legation at Tegucigalpa.
  Protocol of Agreement of the Boundary Question With Honduras as Finally Passed by the Nicaraguan Congress June 25, 1931
  The President of the Republic,
  to its inhabitants,
  That the Congress has ordered the following:
  The Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Nicaragua,
  in view of the Irías-Ulloa Protocol signed in Managua on January
  21 last by Doctor Julián Irías, our Minister of Foreign Affairs,
  José Angel Ulloa as Chargé d’Affaires a. i. of the Republic of
  Honduras; which Protocol was approved by the President of the
  Republic of Nicaragua on the 22nd of the same month and year;
  which has as its object the conclusion of the territorial
  differences which have been pending between Nicaragua and the
  Republic of Honduras referred to, and which the National
  Executive Power has submitted to the co-legislative chambers in
  accordance with the provision of paragraph 8 of Article 85 of
  our Political Constitution for their approval, modification or
  rejection, as indicated in that paragraph,
  To modify it in the exact terms expressed below:
  protocol of agreement of the boundary question with honduras
  The Governments of the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua being desirous of strengthening the ties of friendship which have traditionally united them, by removing the only obstacle which prevents the harmony which now exists from being complete.
  It being understood and resolved that the co-legislative chambers of Nicaragua do not accept the Award of the King of Spain dictated on December 23, 1906, because they consider and regard it as invalid by reason of the multiple defects of form and substance with which it was prepared and pronounced, defects which were opportunely pointed out and attacked by Nicaragua,
  Have resolved to celebrate the following Protocol:
  - Article 1. The Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua hereby mutually agree that the demarcation of the boundary between Nicaragua and Honduras will be confined to a technical commission which will be made up of two engineers, one named by the Government of Honduras and another by the Government of Nicaragua and presided over by an American engineer designated by the Government of the United States of America.
  - Article 2. The Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua agree that the commission of engineers provided for in the preceding article will have full authority to demark the dividing line between the two Republics from Teotecacinte Pass to the Atlantic Ocean in conformity with the stipulations of Article 3 below, establishing this line with respect to the points which may require technical clarification, without, however, altering its essence. In all the doubtful cases which may occur in the demarcation the President of the commission of engineers will decide and his technical decision will be without appeal.
  - Article 3. The dividing line between Nicaragua and Honduras from Teotecacinte Pass to the Atlantic Ocean will leave Nicaragua with dominion over and full possession of all the Coco or Segovia River and its left source, including the beds of the Poteca and other branches of the former, the populated territories, towns and properties which [Page 807] lie along the source referred to. Consequently the demarcation of that dividing line will be effected by following the highest peaks of the mountain range which marks the beginning of the left source of the Coco or Segovia River, or where the waters of the source of the River Patuca begin to descend; and from the point where the range terminates, at the headwaters of the Awawas River, a branch of the Coco, a straight line will be followed to the left bank of the Cruta River at its outlet into the Atlantic Ocean.
  - Article 4. Within sixty days following the exchange of ratifications of the present agreement the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua will name their respective engineers and either of the two Governments will petition the Government of the United States of America to designate the one who is to preside over the technical commission in accordance with the provisions of Article 1.
  - Article 5. In case the two commissioners, the Honduran and the Nicaraguan, or the person who may replace either of these, cannot arrive at an agreement the President of the commission will give a technical decision which will be final.
  - Article 6. The Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua agree that the decisions, resolutions, and recommendations of the technical boundary commission already referred to will be accepted as final and without appeal; and that the dividing line which that commission establishes in conformity with the provisions of Article 3 will be accepted by both Governments as a true and definitive common frontier.
  - Article 7. If despite the provisions of Article 3 Nicaragua or Honduras should have to make delivery of territories by virtue of fulfilling the present agreement such delivery will be effected within six months following the demarcation of the border.
  - Article 8. If inhabitants of territories should be obliged to change sovereignty on account of the fixing of the line established in Article 3 they will preserve their previous nationality; but they will have a year from the date of delivery of the respective territories within which they may opt for either of the two nationalities. Silence at the expiration of this period will indicate that they accept the new nationality.
  - Article 9. Territorial property of indigenous tribes in territories which may have to suffer a change of sovereignty by reason of the fixing of the line established in Article 3 will not be altered by this change. If the territorial property of the tribes inhabiting territory subject to change of sovereignty as provided should not have been legalized, the State acquiring said territory will have the obligation of establishing collectively or individually a legal regime of property in favor of said tribes in such manner that they may acquire gratuitously lots of land to a sufficient extent to fulfill their needs.
  - Article 10. Neither will private property suffer any alteration through the change of sovereignty which has been conditionally considered in the three preceding articles, and such property should be duly respected if it has been duly legalized in the country which in law or in fact possessed the affected territory prior to this agreement.
  - Article 11. For the effects of the conditional provisions of Articles 9 and 10 of this agreement the owners of land which they acquired by virtue of acts of sovereignty of either of the contracting States executed and perfected prior to the date of this agreement, will have the right to inscribe their respective titles in the State which is to exercise sovereignty over the territory affected within a period of two years from the date of delivery of the territory referred, effected in fulfillment of the present agreement.
  - Article 12. It is understood and resolved that it is necessary to the efficacy of the Irías-Ulloa Protocol, as modified, that Honduras accept the modification made to it by the present decree. In the contrary case the Irías-Ulloa Protocol remains rejected on the part of Nicaragua; and the territorial question of which it treats will have the same status as it had before January 21, 1931, (Status quo ante) the day on which the protocol was signed, with the reservation that the Award of the King of Spain neither has had nor has any validity as far as Nicaragua is concerned.
  - Article 13. To further clarify the intention had in framing the preceding Article the co-legislative chambers of Nicaragua consider furthermore the modifications made as reservations to the Irías-Ulloa Protocol for all purposes.
  - Article 14. The present agreement will be submitted in Honduras and in Nicaragua to constitutional ratifications and the exchange of these will be made in Managua and in Tegucigalpa within sixty days following the date of the last ratification.