File No. 9160/31.
Chargé Sands to the Secretary of State.
Guatemala, November 6, 1907.
Mr. Sands, referring to his Nos. 15, 22, and 24, reports that he has very carefully examined the men and finds the assault entirely unprovoked and of a particularly brutal character, one man being maimed for life, the other injured and a profitable business destroyed. Mr. Sands says he considers $5,000 each not an exaggerated demand; states that the Guatemalan Government proposes money indemnification to victims by the governor and judicial punishment for the minor offenders. Mr. Sands also asks for instructions as to whether he shall settle on the basis of money indemnification and publication of arrangement or insist on prompt and fair trial of the governor, officers, bodyguard, and jail officials who failed to tend the wounded men and accepted money for their release, while acknowledging the attack unprovoked, imprisonment unjust, and the negroes within their rights.