The President of Salvador to the Minister of Salvador.
[Translation of the communication above referred to; handed to the Acting Secretary of State September 26, 1912.]
Be good enough in a verbal interview to hand to Acting Secretary Wilson a textual copy of this instruction, asking him to bring it to the knowledge of His Excellency President Taft, to whom the original is addressed. It is as follows:
“It is believed here that the naval forces which occupy Nicaraguan territory have entered into warlike action against the revolutionists who occupy Granada. An occurrence of such gravity seriously compromises the responsibility of the other Central American executives. In order to safeguard my own and in fulfilment of the high duties of humanity which I am certain will find a generous response in the breast of the President, you will intimate to him the happy circumstance in that for the avoidance of greater shedding of blood among our brothers a propitious occasion is presented to the American Government of assisting the high offices of humanity acting in support of my Government, either jointly or separately, to the effect that Don Salvador Calderon should take provisional Chargé of the supreme power of Nicaragua during the period in which constitutional order is being reestablished by legal and peaceful means. Señor Calderón is a person of spotless antecedents, illustrious and upright, and moreover persona grata to the American Government and a friend of President Díaz, who has indicated to my Government that he would accept him in such a character. My Government engages to exercise moral pressure upon the revolutionary heads to induce acceptance of Señor Calderon in accord with that Government (of the United States), which would thus render a service not to be forgotten in the memory of the Central American people, eliminating the profound excitement which the gravity of recent events has caused in this country, which also will react markedly upon the moral opinion of the whole continent. Explain to the President the uprightness of my intentions in this grave emergency which I did not anticipate, since the Department of State had been so kind as to indicate to you that the American naval action would be limited to guaranteeing foreign life and property, and to safeguarding the American Legation and Consulates in that country, a statement which we received with the greatest satisfaction, especially inasmuch as it was confirmed by Minister Weitzel to our Minister in Managua. The undeniable consequences which the continuation of this inefficacious contest in the form and character which it presents today will bring upon Central America must be evident to the lofty intelligence of the President; and you will make one more endeavor in the proposed sense, interesting actively the humanitarian sentiments of the Chief Executive of that Government. I see with pain that the agreements contracted in Washington by the Central American delegates, merely under the good offices and generous hospitality which ex-President Roosevelt tendered them, are apparently being invoked in favor of the attitude recently assumed. Salvador, being one of the contracting parties, deems it its undeniable duty—a duty which becomes a right when it is a question of interpreting agreements which vitally affect it—to declare to President Taft in the most frank and respectful form that the good offices which the United States and Mexico afforded to the Central American plenipotentiaries are always remembered with gratefulness, but that they should be limited to that which they in good faith signify. The firm relations of cordial friendship which unite Salvador to the American Government authorize me to exercise this right in the most courteous form and with the best intentions.