No. 488.
Mr. Connery to Mr. Bayard.
Mexico, September 26, 1887. (Received October 5.)
Sir: Upon receipt of your message of the 24th instant, informing me of the signing of a protocol between Mexico and Guatemala with a view to the settlement of pending difficulties, I addressed a brief note to Mr. Mariscal, a copy of which I inclose, conveying to him your congratulations on the prospects of an amicable adjustment of pending difficulties.
I also called upon him to-day, when he confirmed fully the information that a protocol had been signed between the two countries. He said, moreover, that the new order of things established by the coup d’etat of Barillas would be formally recognized by the Mexican Government on the last day of this month, a sufficient time having elapsed, in the judgment of President Diaz, to justify the belief that no general opposition to Barillas’s dictatorship existed among the people of Guatemala.
“My Government,” said Mr. Mariscal, “does not concern itself in domestic affairs of its neighbors, and it has never had any desire to interfere with Guatemalan matters. When Barillas made his coup d’état we considered it prudent to withhold our recognition for a reasonable time to see if the Guatemalans sanctioned it. If the people do not like Barillas’s coup, if they are opposed to his unconstitutional measure, they have not made it evident. The new Legislative Assembly called by Barillas will meet on the 1st of next month, and the Mexican Government, having received assurances that the irritating controversies with the Government of Guatemala will be terminated satisfactorily, has concluded not to defer beyond the 30th of this month a formal recognition of the de facto government.”
I am, etc.,