No. 347.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, April 3, 1879.
(Received April 22.)
No. 922.]
Sir: I have heretofore reported the rejection by
the English bondholders of the provisional agreement made by the resident
agent of the latter with the Mexican Government, for the recognition and
funding of the Mexican foreign debt, which was the subject of my dispatch
No. 855, of December 16 last.
I now inclose the letter of the secretary of the council of foreign
bondholders of London, addressed to the Mexican minister of finance, as
published in the Diario Oficial of yesterday, in which he states that the
holders of the bonds “lose no time in refusing in the most emphatic manner
to confirm or recognize that instrument” (the agreement).
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 922.]
Mr. Holmes to Mr.
Romero.
[From the Diario Oficial, April 2,
1879.]
letter of secretary of
bondholders.
Sir: I am instructed by the Mexican bondholders
committee to inform you that, having been apprised of the terms of a
contract which on the 6th December, 1878, Mr. E. J. Perry purported to
enter into on behalf of the holders of the bonds of the Mexican debts of
1851 to 1864, they lose no time in refusing in the most emphatic manner
to confirm or recognize that instrument. The terms on which it affects
to settle the claims of the above-mentioned public creditors of Mexico
are not only entirely different from those which this committee had
expressed their willingness to recommend for adoption, but are also
inadequate to meet the just requirements of such creditors, besides
[Page 800]
imposing fresh and onerous
obligations on them as conditions precedent to the partial satisfaction
of claims which ought to be met at once, and without such conditions, by
the Mexican people. It is unnecessary to discuss the practicability of
such a seheme or its details. The committee would only observe that it
is idle to suppose that the capitalists of England or Europe would ever
be willing to advance further funds for the public works of a state
which does not unconditionally acknowledge its past obligations to its
creditors, and make all the immediate provision of which its present
resources will admit to fulfill them.
The committee further consider it pertinent to remark that in affecting
to sign any contract of a definite character Mr. Perry exceeded his
powers, which were simply to discuss, for submission to the bondholders,
terms of settlement.
I have, &c.,
