No. 97.
Mr. Williamson to Mr. Fish.
United
States Legation in Central America,
Comayagua, February 19, 1874.
(Received April 2.)
No. 107.]Sir: I have now the honor to inclose you a copy of
the demand for satisfaction for outrages at Omoa in July last, made in
accordance with your instructions, (the number of which I am not able to
give on account of absence from my office,) and of the reply of the
government of Honduras. The conversation referred to in the last paragraph
of my letter to the minister was held with President Leiva, in the presence
of his cabinet, just after my official reception. In that conversation he
and his cabinet expressed the most profound regret for the occurrences
complained of, and asked what would be satisfactory to my Government. I
replied it was impossible for me to say at that moment, but that, although
the outrage was so grave a one it might have become a “casus belli,” and resulted in consequences more serious to
Honduras than the bombardment of the Fortress of Omoa, I was prepared to
believe my Government, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, might
be satisfied with an apology, a salute of twenty-one guns to the consular
flag from the fort when it was again raised at Omoa, and a decree forever
prohibiting the officer commanding the forces at the time of the outrage
from ever again holding a military or civil office of profit, trust, or
honor in the republic of Honduras. I understood all of them to concur in the
expression of the view that such a satisfaction as I indicated would be
readily conceded. The President asked time to investigate the facts, and
informed me that he had men under arrest and in the way to Comayagua, the
judge of the first instance and sixteen citizens of Omoa, who were reputed
to have been the leaders in the numerous outrages alleged to have been
committed. General Straeber, he said, had escaped into Salvador, but he
proposed to make a requisition for him and bring him to trial.
I beg to be further instructed what to do in regard to this matter.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 107.]
Mr. Williamson to
Señor Zuniga
United
States Legation in Central America,
Comayagua, February 19, 1874.
Sir: I have the honor to state that on or about
the 10th of July last the flag of the United States, then flying over
the office of Consul Charles R. Follin, at Omoa, was hauled down by a
mob of soldiers and citizens of Honduras, and treated with marks of
disrespect; and that at or about the same time the same mob violated the
sanctity of the said consular office and property at Omoa, by breaking
into the office, destroying and mutilating some of the property, and
exposing the correspondence of the said consulate of the United States
to public inspection. All these acts were in violation of international
law and of the subsisting treaty between my country and Honduras. At the
date of these unhappy occurrences Señor Arias was acting as provisional
President of Honduras, and General Straeber, who commanded the forces at
Omoa, was his appointee; but as it was impossible to open diplomatic
relations with the government of Señor Arias, and his excellency
President Leiva has succeeded to the executive office of the republic,
it becomes my duty to address myself to him for redress.
Under instructions from my Government, I therefore have the honor to ask
that full and prompt satisfaction be rendered for said outrage upon the
flag of the United
[Page 143]
States and
violation of the property of the consulate at Omoa. Referring your
excellency to my conversation with his excellency the President to-day,
in the presence of yourself and other members of his cabinet, on this
subject, I beg to express the hope his government will find no
difficulty in acceding with promptness to this just demand of my
Government, and that no interruption may occur in the friendly relations
which have so long happily subsisted between our countries.
With the assurance of my high consideration, I remain, &c.
His Excellency Señor Lic’do Don Adolfo
Zuniga,
Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
107—Translation.]
Señor Zuniga to Mr.
Williamson.
Office
of Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Comayagua, February 19,
1874.
Most Excellent Sir: I had the honor to receive
your excellency’s official dispatch of this date, in which you make
known to this government that, about the 10th of July of the year just
passed, citizens of Honduras and soldiers belonging to the forces under
the command of General Richard Straeber, at Omoa, broke into the office
of the United States consul, Don Charles R. Foillin, sacking the
archives of the consulate, and scattering and destroying some of the
papers, and that on account of these acts your excellency expected the
government of Honduras to give prompt and complete satisfaction to the
Government of the United States.
The citizen President, before whom I have laid your excellency’s
dispatch, instructs me to inform your excellency that the government of
Honduras deplores these events; that, led by the public rumor of their
having occurred, he has given orders for the reconstruction of the
judiciary at Omoa, and for a rigid inquiry to be instituted in regard to
the acts that are the foundation of the reclamation of your excellency.
If they are found to have been done, then the government of Honduras
will have no difficulty in doing justice to the Government of the United
States, according to the laws of nations. Perhaps the fact of the
overthrow of the government of Señor Arias, under whose orders General
Straeber acted, is one of the best satisfactions which the government
and people of Honduras may have been able to give to the Government of
the United States.
I hold it a great honor, Señor Minister, to offer myself as your
attentive and obedient servant,
