Mr. Blaine to Señor Guirola.
Washington, February 18, 1891.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your note of the 10th instant, in which you recur to the subject of an anticipated disturbance of the peace of Central America, and inform me upon credible intelligence possessed by you that the Government of Guatemala is moving forces to the Salvadorian frontier, whence it is inferred that the intention exists to invade Salvador without previous declaration of hostilities. To the end of preventing a renewal of the unhappy conflict which took place between Salvador and Guatemala last summer, you invoke such good offices as the Government of the United States may find it discreet and proper to employ.
The Government of the United States would indeed view with deep concern and anxiety any recurrence of the dissensions to which the Central American States have of late years been subject, and, in fulfillment of its high mission of impartial friendship towards all of those neighboring Republics, it is still ready, as it has always been, to do what it may toward averting a condition of affairs as disastrous to the internal well being of Central America as it is embarrassing and destructive to the interchanges of the Central American States with neighboring communities.
The President of the United States thinks that Salvador and Guatemala are not only bound to keep peace with each other by the terms of the conventions which concluded their recent hostilities, but that they are, each of them, morally bound, as signatories of the treaty of arbitration, which was so auspicious a result of the conference of Washington, to do no act and to commit no aggression which will violate the solemn compact into which they have entered, or Ml short of the high principles they have announced and defended before the civilized world. To abandon the advanced position so assumed would not only be a step for which no justification exists, but would arouse legitimate concern when it is remembered that the interests of the five Central American States are intimately bound together, and that disturbance between any two of them is a menace to the peace of all. Relations of peace and good will among them are essential to their common welfare, and the avoidance of troubles which must react injuriously on the interests of other countries maintaining intimate association with Central America is an obligation of orderly neighborhood weighing equally upon them all.
I can not believe that any Central American State resting under these manifold obligations will do an act tending to disrupt the ties of amity and good will which should bind them to one another, and I am sure that the frank expression of the keen and impartial solicitude with which the Government of the United States receives the disquieting reports from Central America will draw from the several Republics adequate assurances of their peaceful intentions. I accept your note as a positive pledge in this regard on the part of the Government of Salvador.
Accept, etc.,