No. 493.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, October 2, 1874.
(Received October 22.)
No. 191.]Sir: I transmit herewith two articles which have
recently appeared in the Diario Oficial of this city, with translations
thereof, referring to the statements which have appeared in several
newspapers of the United States and Europe, that negotiations were pending
between the governments of the United States and Mexico for the cession of a
part of the territory of the latter to the former country. The articles have
special significance from their appearance in the official journal of the
government, as indicating the sentiment of the present administration of
Mexico upon a subject which has gained currency through unfounded newspaper
reports.
I am, &c.,
[Page 767]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
191.—Translation.]
“THAT IS A LIE.”
[From the Diario Oficial, August 16,
1874.]
Under this heading the Monitor says:
“The American journals do not bite their tongues to tell lies.
“The Commercial Herald recently published one of those sensational items
which so much please our neighbors, which item has been republished,
with extensive comments, by their colleagues on the other side of the
Bravo. According to this article the Mexican government has made
propositions to the United States for a cession of our States of
Nuevo-Leon, Coahuila, Sonora, a part of Cinaloa, part of Durango, and
the Territory of Lower California.
“The Mexican people have always regarded with indignation any idea of a
cession of a part, even an inch, of its territory, and to-day the public
man who should propose such a thing would not even be judged as a
criminal, but we should hand him over to the medical fraternity as a
case of extreme lunacy.
“Such is our conviction; such is the conviction of all
Mexicans. Nevertheless, that the lie may have a stronger
denial, we ask our colleague, the Diario, to tell us, not what there is,
but what there can be in this matter.”
We have seen the article to which the Monitor makes reference, copied by
the Alta California, of San Francisco, and, perhaps, by other American
journals; but we had not thought it necessary to say anything about it,
because of the ridiculous and extravagant idea which it contains. This
government has not made nor will it ever admit propositions for parting
with a single jot of the territory of the nation.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
191.—Translation.]
THE REPORTED NEGOTIATIONS FOR A SALE OF PART OF THE MEXICAN
TERRITORY.
[From the Diario Oficial, September 30,
1874.]
Our readers will doubtless remember that the Commercial Herald, of San
Francisco, Cal., gave currency a few months since to a sensational
report, stating that the government of Mexico had opened negotiations
with the United States, which had for their object a cession to that
country of a considerable part of Mexican territory; and they will also
remember that the Monitor, first, and afterward the Diario and all the
press, declared that this report was absolutely without foundation.
Well, then, as was to be expected, several European periodicals
reproduced the article from the Commercial Herald, and reproduced it,
too, without any correction, perhaps because, not having received at the
time the Mexican papers, they were not aware that the matter had been
positively denied. This gave occasion to several agents of the republic
abroad to make corrections, which, we are pleased to say, almost all the
editors to whom they were sent hastened, with the greatest willingness,
to publish. But among these editors there were two who absolutely
refused to make known the truth to their readers; we refer to the Times,
and Daily Telegraph, of London. This last paper did not confine itself
to republishing the article of the Commercial Herald, but was pleased to
embellish it by adding information of its own invention, to the effect
that the negotiations opened by the Mexican government, for the purpose
indicated, coincided with other negotiations begun in London with the
bondholders by the representatives of the same government. In the
opinion of this daily, the principal object of Mexico was to obtain, by
these means, resources for its exhausted treasury.
Mr. Ignacio de Ibarrondo, private commercial agent of the republic in
that capital, and Mr. Pablo Martinez del Campo, who holds a similar
position in Liverpool, sent to the said periodical the letters which our
readers will see at the end of this article; but, as we have said, the
editor of the Daily Telegraph refused to publish them. Mr. Ibarrondo
wrote to the Times, whose editor likewise refused to receive his letter.
Fortunately there were not wanting impartial journals in the capital of
Great Britain, and the Daily News has made the desired publication.
As it may be seen, the publication of Mr. Ibarrondo’s letter gave
occasion to the secretary of the committee of Mexican bondholders to
venture to affirm that negotiations were being had between the said
committee and the government of Mexico for the arrangement of the debt.
This is absolutely false. Up to the present time the only thing that has
occurred is that these same interested parties, some themselves, and
[Page 768]
others through the agency of
their representative in Mexico, have been making efforts, since 1867, to
see if it is possible to arrive at any practical result; all has
proceeded upon their own motion, because, so far as the government is
concerned, it has abstained from forwarding with them any negotiations
looking to the object which the said secretary suggests.
In Spain and Belgium, the article to which we have been making reference
was, of their own accord, corrected by several journals. In Germany, Mr.
Pedro Lamdazuri, Mexican consul in Hamburg, addressed to the
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung a letter, which that paper hastened to
publish, calling the attention of its readers to it.
