HARRY TRUMAN LIBRARY Papers of NATHANIEL DAVIS DIARY January 16, 19491 Today was the formal inauguration of the Constituent Assembly which met yesterday merely to elect officers and so forth. The session was to begin at o clock and all Chiefs of Mission were invited. arrived promptly at that hour and was the first. However, the colleagues were unusually prompt and within about a quarter of an hour all had assembled. Missing were: the Ambassador of Guatemala who, understand, is in Guatemala and who was represented by his Secretary; the Ambassador of Honduras whose absence is unexplained; the British Minister who probably was at: Port Limón visiting his warship; and, the Peruvian Chargé. do not know whether he stayed away deliberately or was not invited. probably the former since the Venezuelan Minister, although he also represents an unrecognized government, was very much present.
After we had assembled and been greeted by the Chief of Protocol, a committee composed of representatives of the three parties in the Constituent Assembly, appeared to escort us into the hall. The only committeeman knew was Miguel Brenes representing the Constitutionalistas. We entered the hall amid hand clapping by the spectators, the deputies standing silently at their places, and were shown to reserved seats at the right of the Speaker table. In the same way at short intervals there were escorted into the hall and seated the judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the Electoral Tribunal, the Archbishop and a number of church dignitaries, and the members of the Cabinet.
The national colors were then brought in by an honor guard which took its position directly in front of the Diplomatic Corps, thus blocking a substantial part of our view of subsequent proceedings.
stationed When we were all in our places, the band, staged in the courtyard, struck up the National Anthem after which Figueres was escorted into the hall to handclapping from the deputies and hand clapping and cheers from the spectators and was offered a seat at the Speaker table and to the right of the Speaker.
The Speaker then declared the session opened and the secretary read a communication from the Junta which was textually as printed in the morning papers and concluded by