File No. 3691/60.
The President of Nicaragua to President Roosevelt.
I thank Your Excellency for the cablegram in which your mediation for the peaceful settlement of the conflict with Honduras is offered. I recognize and I appreciate the desirability of the American States preserving peace, and consequently I make every effort to maintain it; but the army of Honduras violated the Nicaraguan territory, attacking the frontier guard, shedding blood, committing outrages, and plunderings. Although such acts naturally justify the demand of immediate reparation, I consented by deference to submit to arbitration. The tribunal insisted that the army be first disbanded, and fresh offenses from Honduras, worse than the preceding ones, occurring in the meantime, Nicaragua refused, it being impossible to let the situation remain defenseless and exposed to other attacks. Before the decision of the tribunal on the disarmament question, Honduras declared the arbitration agreement broken, thus giving evidence of the purpose to break it. My Government only accepted arbitration to determine the reparations for violation of territory, without discussing the existence of offensive acts, because they are notorious and confessed by the Government of Honduras itself. The opposite course would impair the honor, the dignity of the nation. I therefore accept with pleasure your excellency’s good offices, and am disposed to let the question be decided by arbitration on the lines above indicated. I must say that public sentiment in Nicaragua is in the same state as that of the American people when the S. S. Maine was blown up.