REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES H: DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Ihr öy ML, NARA 0312 2498 progress had been made in recent months, in brimging Russia Into 11no, ab ho desoribed it. When conversed with him last August he seemed at that time to rear the possibility of a Russian betrayal of England and the United States, which would take the form of the concluision of a separate peace agreement. This belief, he said he had altored in view of rocont dovolopments notably the Moscow Conferences, He thought this was of great importance, both for the present time and for its effect in the post war area. He did not attempt to disguise his belief in the importance of Russia after the war and in the necessity for England and the United Statam to maintain satisfactory and cordial working relations with that country. Costa Rican Internal situation The Archbishop, in referring to the internal situation here, confessed that the atmosphere was unusually tense, due to the exceedingly strong political antagonisms prevailing. He expressed his confidence, however, that the situation could be resolved satisfactorily and without bloodshed, provided, however, the elections are conducted with what he termed libertad substancial. He admitted that elections here always have an element of manipulation in them, which could not be eliminated, but pressed home his point that they must be substantially free ir disorders ars to be avoided. He intimated that it would be difficult to twist the elections too far from their natural course, since, as he put it, when two thieves are watching each other, robberies are not apt to occur. in other words, the various frauds committed by one party will probably be cancelled out by frauds on the other side.
He then harked back to observations which he had made in our previous conversation concerning the national trait of Costa Rica. He said that the country is so small it is not possible to keep anything quiet here very long. Insults which in a larger country would be overlooked, hero acquire great importance and the people naturally have a tendency to let their tongues wag. He felt that at the present time there was no curtailment of the Costa Rican natural enjoyment of talking freely and often without basis in facte Any attempt to curb this traditional characteristic, however, he thought, would have disastrous effects. These traits are, in his opinion, responsible for the wildness of the rumors which circulate here and which tend to distort the por do not entirely appreciate the peculiarities of the local milieu. As an example, he cited the recent disturbances in Heredia: When the news first arrived that there had been trouble there, the reports were that scores of people had been killed, the river had run red with blood, et cetera; when the smoke finally cloared away it was discovered that not ono fatality had occurred. He implied that the same tendency to exaggerate was being displayed in the predictions being made about futuro bloodshed, coups état, or foreign intervention.
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