REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Inhz By ME. NARA Oz:9 2418 because of investments in excess of 5, 000, 000, and his knowledge that in the event of any such uprising, the United Fruit Company will be the first target of the agitation. distressing fact in the situation. Mr.
Chittenden said, is the fact that if these reports are true, the Government will be helpless because of inadequate police and military forces. In such an event it would become necessary for the United Fruit Company, with the permission of the Government, to take at least simple steps to protect its property.
Should such an emergency arise, Mr. Chittenden indicated the distress any self protection measures would cause him personally and his Company officially, because it would be a case from the start of being damned if you do and damned if you don Regardless of how justifiable any self protection measures would be on the part of the United Fruit Company, they would be certain to arouse widespread hostile public opinion.
Mr, Chittenden claims that he is not an alarmist, but he feels, he says, that the situation, regardless of the justification of the mass of the people for complaints against many social and economic conditions in Costa Rica, is one which should not be ignored.
Mr. Chittenden memorandum indicates that a number of prominent people have been marked for assassination, but he told me that he did not know