New Britain herald., 1928-01-11
Non-Recognition of Gov ernments . Departure From Former Less Troublesome Methods.

 same: for more than a Generation comic operas have relied upon the peculiar propensities of leaders in those lands for funny material to sandwich between the songs.
 It is we'll. at a time when MT. Sandino of Nicaragua has turned from a bandit into rebel, not to lose sight of the comical curves in the Central American graph.
 The United States has been par ty to the humor: and before we utter loud guffaws at the picturesque methods of the "heathen Chinee'' one can get laugh out of Central America and Uncle Sam's benef1cent mentoIing.
 Formerly Recognized Them
 In the early history of our gov ernment it was the policy of recog- nizing de facto governments - which means recognizing any gov ernment which in fact exists. re- gardless of how it landed on top of the contending heap of politicians.
 But there were numerous revo. lutions and dictatorships in Latin America, and Uncle Sam began to tire of them, especially tn view of the fact that they injured local and foreign interests. The United States consequently abandoned the policy of de facto recognition and substi- tuted one of recognizing only gov ernment having legitimately attained its power. so-called. This occurred at conference held under the aus pices of the presidents of the United States and Mexico, held and dore in Washington on December 20, 1907. The words of the agreement were that the governments shall not rec ognize any other government which may come into power in any of the five republics as a consequence of . coup i'etat. or of a revolution against the recognized government, so long as the freely elected repre- sentatives of the people thereof have not constitutionally reorganized the country"
 Treaty of 1923
 Subsequently another treaty was signed. on February z. 1923. declar- ing that even when a revolutionary government had been approved by popular election the parties would rot recognize any official should he have been member of a previous revolutionary coup d'etat, or be re- lated to such a one through mar riage or by blood relationship. or if he should have held high office within such ranks.
 Uncle Sam, however. was not a party to the treaty, having merely fathered 1t and induced the others to sign. Under its principles, how ever, the United States declined to recognize such revolutionists as Huerta in Mexico. Tinoco in Costa Rica, Ayora in Ecuador, and Cha moro in Nicaragua.
 Then the humor starts. The treat, has led to results which were no, foreseen. The most comical one Wa, the following:
 Trouble In Honduras In 1923, President Lopez Gutter. reg was the king pin in Honduras after having suppressed s4 minor revolutionary outbreaks in foul years. The American state depar, ment, carrying out the spirit of tn, 1923 treaty, warned the candidates in the forthcoming elections that i any violated the rules laid dow1 and were elected, the recognition O the United States would be withheld 1 The election took place and ac cording to observers, General Caria was favored by the majority of tn people: but President Gutierrez con irolled the ballot boxes, so that n candidate received a majority. Gut errez accordingly decided to remai Tn power, even after his time for re tirement. That came easy 10 him un der the circumstances.
 General Carias as result foo
 the field in q revolutionary mov.
 ment, and after 1,50O lives were sac rificed during eight months (
 fighting he was victorious in fore
 Ing Gutierrez out of the presdenc,
 But the American state depar,
 .nent blan1ly informed Carias ths since he had led revolution h , would not be recognized by in
 American government, even if cleo ted by the people
 In vain did Caras plead that tf
 revolution had been necessary to 2, ] rid Of dictator. Finally he obcd
 emily decided 10 retire 10 priva, life
 { NiraraSian Back ground ' lie present situation In Nicar: