Mr. Wharton to Mr. Mizner.
Washington, August 6, 1890.
Sir: The question of the prompt and certain communication with you during the perturbed condition of Guatemala and Salvador has for some time had the earnest attention of the Department.
It was evident that communications by way of the land lines from Guatemala City to La Libertad were very early interrupted by the hostile operations on the borders of Salvador. Whether the land lines, via Mexico and Nenton, afforded a speedy and secure channel by which to reach you was not so evident. The Department has made every effort to instruct you in regard to the tender of good offices, which we were and are so earnestly desirous to make, and touching, also, the Colima incident; but neither of the two telegrams so far received from you since the 17th of July appears to be in response to the instructions sent you in cipher. Dispatches repeated to you through the United States legation in Mexico have been equally without acknowledgment, except, perhaps, the plain telegram which was forwarded to you by Mr. Ryan on the 1st instant, directing you to go to San José, and to which your telegram received on the 2d, via Nenton and the City of Mexico, may be a reply.
[Page 63]I inclose herewith, for your information, copies of all the telegrams sent to you, and exchanged with Minister Ryan, in regard to the apparent obstruction of communication with you. It is desirable that you should carefully compare the dates of the dispatches addressed to you, noting those received by you and the day and hour of their delivery. It is also desirable to know whether you have sent any other telegrams than the few which the Department has received from you through Mr. Ryan.
The Department would be greatly relieved to learn that there has, in fact, been no interruption or interception of your dispatches in any quarter; but in this relation it is interesting to recall that in 1885, at the time of General Barrios’s attempt to coerce a union of the Central American States, the Department’s telegram of March 10, 1885, deprecating the use of force to that end was unaccountably delayed in transmission, although dispatches immediately preceding and following it were delivered to Mr. Hall with reasonable promptness.
A full report and, if the facts require it, a searching investigation by you is necessary. The right of inviolable and unimpeded communication between a government and its envoy in another country is one of the most important in the intercourse of nations. This is especially the case with such a mission as yours. You are equally accredited to each of the five states of Central America, and your official utility depends, in time of disturbance, on your ability to keep open communications with them and with your own Government. Should the facts disclose any intentional or avoidable interference with your rights in this regard, no more serious cause of complaint could well be presented.
Hence, also, the evident occasion for the Department’s instruction to you to proceed to San José, and there open communication with Salvador by the aid of our naval vessels now on that coast. So long as your correspondence with the authorities of Salvador must pass through hostile Guatemalan channels the Department can feel no confidence that its instructions in regard to the impartial tender of our good offices to both combatants are being effectively carried out.
Your report on the subject is awaited with interest and even anxiety. To guard against possible interference or delay, the present instruction will be forwarded to you through the commanding officer of the naval vessels, by way of Acapulco, and steamer thence to San José, in the expectation that it can be personally delivered to you at that port. Should you, unfortunately, not then be at San José, the commander will be requested to send an officer to seek you and place the instruction in your hands.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.