Mr. Mizner to Mr. Blaine.
Guatemala, October 29, 1890. (Received November 13.)
Sir: The special minister of the Republic of Salvador, Señor Doctor Don Eugenio Aranjo, was received by the President of Guatemala on the 20th instant in the usual manner. The respective addresses made [Page 122] on the occasion were most friendly, promising a lasting peace between the two countries.
Señor Aranjo comes for the purpose of negotiating the final treaty referred to in the bases of peace and in my dispatch No. 179 of the 8th instant. He and the minister of foreign relations of this Republic assure me that the two Governments are in accord, and that there will be no difficulty in arriving at a prompt and satisfactory conclusion, including a favorable view of the International Railway, as suggested by the Pan-American Congress, the insertion of which will be due to the importance you have given it and to the earnest and friendly manner in which it has been urged here.
Desiring to bring the high contracting parties into the most friendly relations, they and the whole diplomatic corps have been entertained at this legation, where the kindest sentiments were exchanged.
Thus, under our kind mediation, aided by other friendly nations, a war in which several hundred lives had been lost and many millions of dollars squandered, and which threatened untold disaster in the immediate future, was stayed in its destructive course.
Two hostile armies, aggregating over 30,000 men, were retired to their homes as if by magic.
It is noted with surprise that the public press has had scarcely a word of commendation for our humane action in this particular, but, on the contrary, it has been exceedingly severe and unfair in its comments on a mere incident of the war, to wit, the right of a nation to arrest one of its own citizens in its own waters.
The relations between the states of Central America seem now to be most cordial and our own with each of them equally so.
I have, etc.,