No. 167.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Señor Montúfar.
Washington, June 5, 1882.
Sir: Referring to your several communications respecting the differences between Guatemala and Mexico, I have now the honor to state for your information the position of the question so far as the United States have taken part in it.
On the 15th of June last, Mr. Ubico informed Mr. Blaine, that all peaceful measures of conciliation appeared to be exhausted, and appealed on behalf of his government to the United States, as the natural protector of the Central American territory. Thereupon Mr. Blaine, on the 16th of June, instructed Mr. Morgan, the minister of the United States in Mexico, to offer to Mexico the good offices of the United States, and informed Mr. Ubico that he had done so.
Mr. Morgan complied with this instruction, and made a formal tender of the good offices of the United States as mediator.
Subsequently Mr. Morgan, without further instructions from this Department, but with its acquiescence and in full accord with the suggestions, written and verbal, of the minister for Guatemala, proposed verbally to Mr. Mariscal that the differences between Guatemala and Mexico should be submitted to the decision of the President of the United States as arbitrator.
Mr. Morgan’s course in this respect was approved, and he was further instructed by Mr. Blaine as follows, on the 28th November last:
If the Government of Mexico should he disposed to accept an arbitration, limited in its point of settlement, as Mr. Herrera, the Guatemalan minister, indicated would be acceptable to his government, you will ask the assurance of the Mexican Government that, pending the discussion necessary to perfect such an arrangement, all hostile demonstrations should be avoided, and, if possible, that the Mexican troops should be withdrawn from the immediate vicinity of the disputed boundary. But this latter request you will not insist upon if it should be an obstacle to obtaining the consent of Mexico to a limited arbitration.
Should the Mexican Government, however, decide that it was not consistent with its views to accept a friendly intervention in the differences between itself and Guatemala, you will inform the secretary for foreign affairs that you accept this decision as undoubtedly within the right of Mexico to make. You will express the very deep and sincere regret which this government will feel if it shall find the powerful Republic of Mexico unwilling to join the Government of the United States in maintaining and establishing the principle of friendly arbitration for international differences on the continent of America. Mexico and the United States, acting in cordial harmony, can induce all the other independent governments of North and South America to aid in fixing this policy of peace for all the future disputes between the nations of the western hemisphere. And it would be a marked and impressive precedent, if, in a dispute with a weaker neighbor, Mexico should frankly consent to a friendly arbitration of all existing differences.
On the 31st day of December last, Mr. Morgan under further instructions made a formal tender to the Mexican Government of the good [Page 327] offices of the President of the United States, and of his services as arbitrator, in the following language:
In obedience, therefore, to the instructions contained in the dispatch which I have just read to you, I formally suggest to the Mexican Government, through your excellency—
- 1.
- That all the differences now unhappily existing between Mexico and Guatemala be submitted to arbitration.
- 2.
- That pending this arbitration the troops of Mexico be withdrawn from the immediate neighborhood of the Guatemalan frontier.
- 3.
- I inform you that the President of the United States is willing to accept the position of arbitrator between the two governments.
- 4.
- I respectfully ask an early decision of your excellency’s government upon these suggestions.
On the 20th of March last Mr. Mariscal communicated to Mr. Morgan the answer of the Mexican Government, in language of which I inclose a copy in the Spanish text, and of which the following is a translation:
Coming down to the propositions which you submitted to me, I have been instructed by the President to answer in the following terms:
As respects the first, I must observe that the principal controversy which has excited Guatemala is the one which relates to the right by which Mexico holds the State of Chiapas, as one of the members of the Federal Union, including the territory of Soconusco, which forms a part thereof, but, as has been explained on a former occasion, the Mexican Government finds itself in the absolute impossibility of discussing or of submitting the rights of the nation to this portion of her territory to any judgment. For the same reason it is not possible to submit all the differences which exist between the two governments to arbitration, as you propose should be done. Besides, if the Guatemalan Government will agree to expressly exclude the one which relates to Chiapas and Soconusco, the Mexican Government will not find it inconvenient to submit to a determinate arbitration, which would be limited to the question of boundary, which then surged between the two countries.
I say “which then surged,” because the pretensions of Guatemala upon the whole or a portion of that Mexican State frankly eliminated (from the discussion?), the questions which have scarcely been mentioned with reference to the boundary of Soconusco would be from that time easily arranged, without the necessity of appealing to an arbitrator.
The aforesaid pretensions of acquiring in whole or in part the territory to which I refer, or of obtaining a compensation therefor, whether the same has been expressly stipulated, or whether in a disguised form, has been, and is, the only difficulty between the two governments. If it should disappear by reason of a sensible abandonment, which the Guatemalan Government would make of such unfounded aspirations, there would probably be no necessity for an arbitration to decide any point of difference upon the question of boundary (between the two countries), besides removing the great reason for disagreement which up to now has divided us.
The second proposition, to the effect that the Mexican forces be withdrawn from the frontier, pending the arbitration, cannot be decided upon at the present moment; to maintain our forces upon our territory, and near the line provisionally recognized by Guatemala, will depend upon the circumstances arising during the arbitration, if an arbitrator be agreed upon, or even if an agreement should be concluded to arbitrate.
The object of maintaining a personal force on the frontier alluded to, whose numbers are far from alarming, is to prevent the incursions of armed Guatemalans, from which our frontier population has suffered, because of the absence ordinarily of a Mexican soldier there. This government has never in any way pretended to menace Guatemala with an invasion with these troops, and no one has thought of such a thing.
Your third proposition consists in the formal offer that the President of the United States shall be the arbitrator between the two Governments of Mexico and Guatemala.
Within the limitations expressed, that is to say, not including in the arbitration the right which Mexico has to the whole of the territory which to day comprises the State of Chiapas, the Government of Mexico is disposed to admit and will admit with pleasure the arbitration of the President of the United States, for the purpose of deciding any question which may require the employment of such a method and which is susceptible of being decided by it in determining the boundary of both nations.
Notwithstanding, we cannot at the present time know if any such questions will arise, as this question has not up to date been discussed by Guatemala, except one which relates to its boundary with our country, and this always under the precautions and from the second point of view which has been above referred to.
I informed you of this proposition verbally. Since communicating it to you I learn through several notes from you, and more especially [Page 328] your notes of the 2d and the 28th of May last, that direct negotiations for arbitration are taking place between you and Mr. Romero. In your note of the 2d you communicated to me for my information a proposition from Mr. Romero to you to submit the question of boundary to the arbitration of the President of the United States, and your proposed amendment of the second article. In your note of the 28th you inform me that there is a probability that the proposal of Mr. Romero will be withdrawn and that war will ensue.
In reply I am instructed by the President to say that he would see a state of war on the continent of North America between two republics of common origin and language with profound solicitude and regret. No reasonable efforts on the part of this government as a neutral friend to both will be spared to prevent it.
It appears that the draft for a convention submitted to you by Mr. Romero contained ten articles, and that you accepted all except the second article. You proposed to substitute your own draft for Article 2. The difference between you and Mr. Romero is, then, reduced to this article, and appears to be as follows:
| Mr. Romero’s Draft. | Mr. Montúfar’s Draft. |
| 2d. Presidente de los Estados Unidos designará les limites entre el Estado de Chiapas parte integrante de la Confederacion Mexicana y la Republica de Guatemala. | 2d. El Presidente de los Estados Unidos designará la linea entre Chiapas y Guatemala. |
I thought it my duty informally and unofficially to endeavor to ascertain the causes of the difference. I am told by Mr. Romero that Mexico has for years regarded, and still regards, the State of Chiapas as an integral part of the Federal Republic of Mexico, in the same sense as the State of New York is an integral part of this republic, and that he cannot give his assent to any scheme of arbitration which does not exclude the idea of submitting that question to arbitration. He adds that he has so informed you; that he told you that in laying the projet before you he did it without authority from his government, but that he thinks it will be acquiesced in by his government, if accepted by yours.
The interest which the President takes in the prosperity of Guatemala and the confidence reposed by you and your government in the United States must be my excuse for these unauthorized inquiries of Mr. Romero.
While offering this personal explanation, I beg leave to renew the official assurance that the President will gladly lend his good offices to bring about a solution of this unfortunate question if a basis can be found that is acceptable to both Guatemala and Mexico.
Accept, &c.,