Mr. Mizner to Mr. Blaine.
Guatemala, July 16, 1890. (Received July 19.)
Mr. Mizner reports that he is informed by the Government of Guatemala that a Pacific mail steamer which left San Francisco on the 3d instant, carrying ten thousand stand of small arms for Salvador, is expected to arrive at San José de Guatemala on the 17th instant.
Mr. Mizner says that the Guatemalan Government appeals to that [Page 33] of the United States to cause the steamer to carry the arms beyond Salvadorian territory and land them in some port of a neutral State until consultation between the Guatemalan authorities and the ministers of Nicaragua and Costa Rica at Guatemala. He asks that he may be immediately instructed, and says that the steamer is detained until the 20th instant. He expresses the belief that, if there be no remedy, Guatemala may, for the purpose of claiming the arms as contraband, formally declare war, and he asks whether the arms in that case can be taken from an American vessel.