Office of the Historian

File No. 7357/703.

Chargé Brown to the Secretary of State.

[Extract.]
American Legation,
Tegucigalpa, January 4, 1910.
No. 200.]

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies of the annual message addressed by President Davila to the National Congress which assembled on the 1st instant.

The most interesting passage, perhaps, is that referring to the question of the Central American Union. I append hereto a copy of this portion of the message, together with a translation.

I have, etc.,

Philip Brown.
[Inclosure—Translation.]

Message of the President of Honduras.

A matter of vital interest which actually is being agitated in the whole of Central America is the much to be desired national union, an idea which received a powerful impulse from the treaties of Washington, creators of the court of justice at Cartago and of the International Central American Bureau, institutions which in every sense stimulate and nourish this idea.

The neutrality declared by Honduras and recognized by the nations which subscribed to these treaties, a neutrality exacted by the circumstances in which exist the political relations of the Governments of Guatemala, Salvador, and Nicaragua, places our Government in the position of not being able to take the initiative in that grand idea; but this does not hinder it from adhering to the same, once it shall be brought about by the other States, since I am firmly convinced that while these countries remain under present conditions peace will be ephemeral, a peace which exhausts our resources and which discredits us before civilized nations.

I am not unaware that the States of Central America are not yet prepared to unite politically; but Honduras, because of its geographical position, being the country of the Isthmus most exposed to civil wars and seeing continually appear on its frontiers the specter of invasions, emboldened by the state of division in which we live, would, I think, be most benefited by the national union. Only in this way will cease the civil wars which have engendered the spirit of faction and personal ambition characterizing our distinct parties and which have produced no other result than anarchy in politics and society.