HARRY TRUMAN LIBRARY Papers of NATHANIEL P, DAVIS DIRY Deceriber 19, 1948.
Odio phoned that the party was assembling and included several diplomats. iruediately went to the airport where found roost of the commission, most of the Junta, all of the foreign correspondents, and the Hexican Chargé. The commission, accompanied by Figueres and Ulate, took off in the commission plane and the rest of us rode in a Pan American plane chartered by the government as guests of Odio.
We flew to Liberia where we spent several hours in the cuartel and around town talking to the commander of the government forces who explained the dispositions with a map. The commission interviewed two alleged eye witnesses; one who said he was in wa Cruz when the invaders arrived, and the other who claimed to have met two men in Guardia uniforris rounding up cattle. From his description of events, concluded that very possibly the two men he saw were nothing more than cattle rustlers but, of course, don know.
In the cuartel we were shown a Mauser rifle, allegedly taken from a prisoner. The markings on the rifle showed that it was manufactured in Germany in 1908.
Very faintly etched on the breech was a device which we were told was the coat of arms of Nicaragua. Without a magnifying glass it would be inpossible to say for sure.
It did not look to me like the Nicaraguan triangle and volcano. The Brazilian military member of the commission was convinced that the device was the Brazilian coat of arms. examined it as closely as could and could not say for sure. It is interesting, however, to recall that some months ago tlie Dominican Republic purchased a large stock of surplus arns from Brazil and that beiore World War I, it acquired most of its military equipment froin Germany. Brazil After lunch at Liberia, we got into our respective planes and flew over northern Cuanacaste. Te circled La Cruz and Fuerto Soley among other places. saanned both with field glasses and could detect no movement in the city. We were fairly low and visibility was excellent.
Not even a doc was in sight in the cities and certainly there were no boats at Puerto Soley. We cot back to San José about four o clock.
It seven