No. 602.
Mr. Montufar to Mr. Bayard.
Washington , December 27, 1887. (Received January 9.)
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive your excellency’s esteemed letter of the 24th instant, in which you are pleased to reply to the one addressed by Señor Lainfiesta on the 25th of October last, to the Department under your worthy charge. I also received the copies your excellency was kind enough to send of the documents relative to the instructions which, at different periods, were forwarded to the diplomatic and consular agents of this Republic, in regard to what they are permitted to do in behalf of Swiss citizens as directed by the circular of December 15, 1871; all of which is perfectly explained in your dispatch of July 1, of this year, to Major Karl Kloss, the representative of Switzerland at this capital.
Your excellency is kind enough to state to me that should my Government, on learning the terms of the document to which your esteemed communication refers, desire still the friendly good offices of the representatives abroad of the United States, you will be pleased to issue to them, with reference to the citizens of Guatemala, a circular similar to that of December 15, 1871.
The extraordinary greatness of this prosperous nation, its principles, its liberties, and its republican form caused the Government of Guatemala to profess profound sympathy with that of your excellency, and [Page 831] to endeavor to extend day by day their commercial relations, which are in truth continually assuming larger proportions, to the benefit of both nations.
This is demonstrated by the increase at New York of importations and exportations from and to the ports of my country, and also by the fact of all the great enterprises of Guatemala being in the hands of American companies, to which my Government lends every kind of facility.
These circumstances will make evident to your excellency that my Government endeavors to render more intimate the happy ties of friendship which bind it to that of your excellency, and by very special instructions from the state department of Guatemala, to this end is directed the communication of Señor Lainfiesta, to which your excellency has so kindly replied.
Perhaps going into the details of the subject with your excellency, a treaty of friendship and commerce could be made between Guatemala and the United States in which your excellency, as explained in the penultimate paragraph of your note to Don Karl Kloss, could not authorize more than the Constitution allows, obtaining at the same time favorable advantages, beneficial to our respective countries.
Until my Government is made acquainted, as your excellency desires, with the documents you have been pleased to transmit to me, I take the liberty of calling your illustrious attention to the views (conceptos) of the anterior paragraph, which your excellency will doubtless note.
I offer your excellency most earnest and sincere thanks for the sentiments of friendship for my Government expressed in your esteemed letter. This is a new evidence of regard for Guatemala which will be duly appreciated, and in the name of the Government of my country I testify the deepest gratitude.
I avail, etc.,