No. 121.
Mr. Williamson to Mr. Fish.
Guatemala, August 21, 1874. (Received Sept. 23.)
Sir: I have the honor to report that the arrangement for the settlement of the questions between Great Britain and Guatemala which grew out of the outrage upon Vice-Consul Magee at the port of San José, on the 24th of April last, has been completed. My information is derived from the British chargé d’affaires and from the minister of foreign affairs of Guatemala.
The supreme court of justice announced its sentence yesterday in the cases of Gonzalez and Bulnes. I am assured it is final.
In my No. 210 I reported to you the decision of the supreme court of war, by which Bulnes was acquitted. That decision has been reversed by the supreme court of justice. The sentence now is, in the case of Gonzalez, that he be destituted of his rank and sentenced to close confinement for ten years in the fortress of San Felipe, and be forever prohibited from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the government of Guatemala.
I take occasion to remark, on this sentence, that destitution of rank here is quite different from degradation from rank. The former is an act consummated by the decree of the court or the mandate of the President. In the latter the officer who is to be punished is degraded in some public place, in the presence of his comrades and voluntary spectators, in the most severe and ceremonious manner.
I also beg leave to say the fortress of San Felipe is an unfinished and partly demolished old Spanish fort, located just where the gulf or lake of Dulce begins to discharge itself through the river Dulce into the Gulf Amatique, on the Caribbean or north side of Guatemala. Having been through this ruin, I would pronounce it anything but a safe place for a prisoner who wished to escape.
The sentence of the court in the case of Bulnes is, that he shall be imprisoned for three years and be forever deprived of the right of holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the government of Guatemala.
The British chargé having decided that the foregoing sentences were unsatisfactory, demanded, under special instruction, that the government of Guatemala should pay $50,000, and that a salute of twenty-one guns should be fired to the British flag at San José by the troops of Guatemala, under the immediate command of the military officer of the highest rank in the state, and in the presence of himself, the British admiral, and such of the diplomatic corps as he might invite to be present. To these terms the government of Guatemala acceded yesterday, as I am informed by the British chargé and the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs.
The money is to be paid on the day the salute is fired. That day is not yet agreed upon, but the 30th or 31st has been indicated.
The only difference between the statements of the two parties as to the arrangement is, that the Guatemalan officials state the government reserves the right to present “justifications” of its course to the British government, and to reel aim the $50,000 if that government should become convinced at any future time it was wrong in requiring its payment.
The British chargé says there is no reservation of any kind whatever, [Page 183] and that the settlement is either final and conclusive of the whole matter, or it is of no effect whatever.
I anticipate there will be no further serious trouble or correspondence about this subject.
I have, &c.,