Stamp Feud

A wavering line running in a southwesterly direction from Cape Gracias a Dios on the Caribbean to the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific divides the two Central American Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua. The exact position of this line has been the cause of dispute for many years. Under a treaty signed in 1894, the Government of Spain was called in to arbitrate. The decision awarded in 1906 was rejected by Nicaragua because of "irregularities in procedure." A conference in Washington in 1918 was equally fruitless.

Last week the Nicaraguan Government put out a postage stamp depicting "the official map of Nicaragua." Honduras promptly demanded the stamp's suppression. Nicaragua refused and the rumpus began. Many Nicaraguan residents of Honduras were returned home by their legation in Tegucigalpa; orators of both countries broadcast bitter speeches; Honduran students, learning that Nicaraguan firebrands were urging war, declared themselves ready to fight back, thundered in a manifesto that "to die for the Fatherland is to open the doors of immortality."

At week's end Nicaragua retorted by banning an airmail stamp (allegedly showing the disputed border strip) issued by the Honduran Government in 1935. The decree warned that parcels and mail bearing the stamp would be returned to the place of origin.

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