File No. 817.00/1935.
[Inclosure 1.]
The American Minister to
Salvador to the Secretary of
State
.
No. 258.]
American Legation,
San Salvador
,
August 22, 1912
.
Sir: I have the honor to report that on
the morning of the 15th instant Doctor Castro Ramírez, the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, came to the Legation, to request me to send a
telegram to our Legations at Tegucigalpa and Managua, [Page 1047] and ask our Ministers at
those capitals to have the kindness to ascertain and advise me, by
wire, for the information of President Araujo, if it was true that
the Honduran Government had sent General Durón to Nicaragua with
artillery and military forces to aid the Government of President
Díaz. Minister Castro Ramírez explained that the reason why he
requested me to send such a telegram was that President Araujo’s
telegrams to the Presidents of Honduras and Nicaragua of several
days ago asking for this same information had apparently been
intercepted, as he had received no response, and that the President
thought the Legation’s telegrams might be allowed to go through
without molestation. I therefore sent the before-mentioned telegrams
for President Araujo. A few hours later, however (at 11:30 a.m. of
the same day and twenty-four hours before I had received a response
from either Tegucigalpa or Managua), Minister Castro Ramírez came to
the Legation and showed me a telegram from President Bonilla, of
Honduras, to President Araujo, dated the 15th instant, informing him
that General Durón has not been in the service of the Honduran
Government for some time past, and adding that apart from the small
force on the frontier, no troops of the Government of Honduras have
been mobilized; while Minister Castro Ramírez sent to me on the
afternoon of the same day (the 15th instant) a copy of a telegram to
the President of this Republic from Señor J. Antonio López G., the
Salvadoran Minister to Nicaragua, dated Chinandega, August 15, 1912,
saying that General Durón had arrived at Managua with three hundred
men and two machine guns, and that a, train had passed Chinandega on
that day with 50,000 rounds of ammunition from Amapala, Honduras.
Consequently, as President Araujo had obtained the information which
he wanted regarding the movements of General Durón direct from the
Minister of Salvador to Nicaragua and also from the President of
Honduras, I did not communicate to the Salvadoran Government the
response of our Legations at Tegucigalpa and Managua. I enclose
copies of the before-mentioned telegrams for the information of the
Department, as well as a copy of an additional telegram which I have
received from our Chargé d’Affaires at Tegucigalpa, dated the 20th
instant, saying that the information contained in his first telegram
in that General Durón had joined President Díaz is incorrect, while
I also enclose a copy of my response to that telegram, dated
to-day.
Respecting the attitude of the Government of Salvador in relation to
the present revolution in Nicaragua, I have the honor to report that
in a conversation which I had with President Araujo on the 17th
instant upon this subject, the Executive stated to me that he had
addressed an identic note to the Presidents of Guatemala, Honduras,
and Costa Rica, proposing joint action in giving to the constituted
Government of Nicaragua their moral, as well as their material
support; and when I asked President Araujo with what result, he
responded that the Government of Guatemala had consented to give to
the Government of President Díaz its moral, but not its material
support; that the Government of Honduras had replied, saying that it
would join the Government of Salvador in rendering the constituted
Government of Nicaragua both moral and material support, and,
finally, that the answer of Costa Rica had been to the effect that
the Government of that country would do whatever Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras might dictate, in order to help in the
restoration of peace in Nicaragua.
In this connection I may add that, pending an answer from the three
before mentioned Governments, the Government of Salvador had
completed arrangements with the Salvador Railway and Steamship
Company for the transportation of one-thousand troops from here to
Corinto, and that it was only yesterday that the Salvadoran
Government resolved to abandon this project; and Doctor Castro
Ramírez informed me in a conversation which I had with him to-day
that his Government would confine itself to giving to the
constituted Government of Nicaragua its moral support only. This is
the situation here at the present time, and, aside from condemning
General Mena for disturbing the peace of Central America, simply
from morbid personal motives, the people of Salvador seem to take no
other interest in the actual uprising in Nicaragua.
In explanation of his desire to ascertain if General Durón had been
sent to Nicaragua by the Honduran Government to aid the Government
of President Díaz against General Mena, President Araujo stated to
me that he had had a suspicion (which he has now admitted to me
without foundation) that the President of Honduras was working
“underground” after having promised to cooperate with Salvador in
rendering assistance to the actual Government of Nicaragua.
I have [etc.]
