No. 122.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Hall.
Washington, September 11, 1888.
Sir: I have received your telegram of the 2d instant, reporting that the Guatemalan Government persists in sustaining the Bueron contract, and requesting instructions as to protecting the rights of the injured parties.
On the 7th instant I replied to you by telegraph.
The principle applicable in this, as in other cases of contractual claims against foreign governments, was laid down in my instruction No. 563, of March 27, 1888. It was there stated that, except where citizens holding such claims were unduly discriminated against by the debtor government or were denied a judicial domestic remedy against it, the Government [Page 166] of the United States would refuse to press the claims, and would limit intervention to the tender of the unofficial good offices of our diplomatic representatives. You were instructed that the present case was one in which that course might properly be adopted, and you were authorized to present unofficially to the Guatemalan Government the grievances of which the petitioners, the Champerico and Northern Transportation Company, complained.
These grievances are fully set forth in the instructions already referred to, and consist in part of a proposed concession to Messrs. J. L. Bueron & Co. of the right to construct a parallel line of road in a manner directly contrary to the plain language of the concession held by the petitioner. This conduct amounts, as stated in my former instructions, to a “clear repudiation and disregard by the Guatemalan Government of some of the essential features of the agreement.” But, however serious in its consequences to the petitioner, it appears to be nothing more than a breach of contract. Your later dispatches, Nos. 809, of May 9, and 819, of June 9, 1888, on this subject present no facts which would serve to remove it from this category; and I am therefore constrained to repeat my former instructions, limiting you to the use of your unofficial good offices in presenting the case to the Guatemalan authorities.
I am, sir, etc.,