No. 97.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Hall.
Washington, July 19, 1887.
Sir: Your telegram touching the strained relation of Mexico to Guatemala, and reporting the movement of Mexican troops to the frontier, reached me on the morning of 15th instant. Upon receipt of the foregoing, I wrote a personal note to Mr. Cayetano Romero, the [Page 133] Mexican chargé d’affaires at this capital, expressing concern at the intelligence conveyed by your telegram, and asking him to call at the Department.
He did so, when I showed him a paraphrase of the material parts of your telegram.
Mr. Romero proved to be without sufficient knowledge of the intentions of his Government to give me the assurances I hoped for, but promised to communicate with Señor Mariscal and let me know further.
I this morning received from him a personal note, in which he communicates Señor Mariscal’s message “that the Mexican troops ordered to the Guatemalan frontier were not sent there to provoke a collision, but simply to protect Mexican interests.” Copies of the correspondence are hereto annexed.* I have acquainted Mr. Manning, in Mexico, with this correspondence and have sent him copies of your previous dispatches on the same subject for his information.
I trust that your apprehensions of a disposition on the part of Mexico to provoke difficulty with Guatemala at this juncture may be without real foundation, which I am encouraged to believe, from Mr. Mariscal’s declarations may prove to be the case.
You will continue to advise me fully of the situation.
I am, etc.,