File No. 6775/579.
Minister Heimké to the Secretary of State.
Guatemala City , September 16, 1908 .
Sir: I have the honor to report that in accordance with the special convention signed at Washington, D. C., in December last by the delegates of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador for the establishment at the city of Guatemala of an international bureau of the Central American Republics for the development of Central American commerce, etc., the President of Guatemala, with the assistance of the cabinet ministers, members of the supreme court, high army officers, the diplomatic corps, and civic bodies yesterday officially inaugurated the before-mentioned bureau in impressive ceremony and amidst the greatest enthusiasm, at which inauguration most felicitous, practical, and appropriate addresses were made by the President of the Republic, the minister for foreign affairs, the minister of fomento, the dean of the diplomatic corps, and by each of the delegates to this Central American Bureau.
It is gratifying to me to state that the Government of Guatemala lacked neither energy nor interest in making the occasion of this inauguration a complete success, and every one seems to look forward with more than ordinary concern to the beneficent results of this bureau. As at present constituted, the personnel of the same, composed of men of rare attainments and exceptional intelligence, is as follows:
Costa Rica: Ricardo J. Echeverría (who is also the consul of Costa Rica to Guatemala).
Guatemala: José Pinto (a former chief justice of the supreme court of the Republic of Guatemala).
Honduras: Manuel Echeverría (chargé d’affaires of Costa Rica to Guatemala, temporary, pending the arrival of the duly appointed delegate, who has been unavoidably detained by impassable roads and swollen streams).
Nicaragua: Dr. Benjamin F. Zeledón (newly appointed chargé d’affaires from his country to Guatemala).
Salvador: Dr. Carlos Guillén.
After the close of the ceremonies that attended the inauguration of this International Bureau of the Central American Republics, the before-mentioned delegates had the kindness to pay me a call of courtesy and, at the same time, to solicit my assistance in go far as might be possible and consistent in placing them in proper touch with the International Bureau of the American Republics at Washington, which it seems to be their desire to take as a model and to follow.
I shall take pleasure in forwarding to the department the publications of the before-mentioned bureau as they appear from time to time.
I have, etc.,