File No. 816.00/144a.

The Secretary of State to the American Minister to Guatemala .1

No. 116.]

Sir: In September last the Government of the United States received information that the President of Guatemala, having previously given secret aid to the Manuel Bonilla revolutionist movement against the Dávila Government in Honduras, was actively supporting General Bonilla for the presidency of that country under an agreement by which, after the elections of October 29 in Honduras, the two of them would undertake to lend assistance in the subversion of the Governments of Salvador and Nicaragua by disaffected elements in those two countries, the ultimate aim being, it is alleged, to place Estrada Cabrera in a dominating position in those Republics.

Thereafter the Department received corroborative information that Prudencio Alfaro, a Salvadoran revolutionist, was in Guatemala, near the capital, in frequent communication with Estrada Cabrera; that. Guatemalan troops were being mobilized on the Salvadoran frontier; that cart, roads were being constructed and telegraph and telephone offices opened at strategic points along the border for the entry of Salvadoran emigrados from Guatemala and Honduras; that unusually large shipments of military supplies were being received; that mules and elements of war were being sent from Chiquimula, in Guatemala, to Ocotepeque, in Honduras; that certain vessels, notably the Emma and Siren, used in the recent revolution against the Dávila Government, were being overhauled and put into commission by Guatemala and Honduras, respectively; that complaints were being made by Guatemala and Honduras of violation by Salvador of the Washington Conventions for the purpose, on the complainants part, of securing the arrest of Honduran emigrados in Salvador who might otherwise interfere with the plans of Estrada Cabrera and Bonilla; and, finally, that other incidents, unimportant in themselves, if taken in connection with the above matters indicated the existence of a well-laid plan for a joint attack from Guatemalan and Honduran territory against the Government of Salvador, which, as far as the Department knows, is giving a peaceful and orderly administration of affairs in that Republic satisfactory to the majority of its people.

This Government has also received, from time to time, information of countermovements to bring about the subversion of the Governments [Page 1311] of Guatemala and Honduras, respectively, and the Department has accordingly taken such precautions in aid of the constituted Government in those two Republics as seemed necessary to secure proper observance and enforcement of the so-called neutrality statutes of the United States and, in addition thereto, for the purpose of carrying out the spirit of the Washington conventions in which this Government has a deep interest although not a signatory thereof, it has exercised its good offices, on the request of the Government of Guatemala and the other signatories, in an impartial manner in bringing to the attention of the Governments concerned the charges of violation of the conventions, and has informally suggested the advisability of submitting their various contentions to the General American Court of Justice at Cartage.

Reports have now reached the Department that the consistent record of this Government in respect of the recognition of constituted authority in Guatemala, the exercise of its good offices on behalf of Guatemala in the maintenance of the neutrality provisions of the Washington conventions, and its oft-expressed friendship for the people of Guatemala have been taken advantage of so as to create a totally false impression that the United States is in sympathy with Estrada Cabrera, if not secretly supporting him, in his alleged designs against the other Governments of Central America.

The Department has not the means, even if it had the inclination, to determine the merits of the charges made by Guatemala and Honduras against Salvador and the countercharges preferred by the latter. In order, however, that there may be no misconception in Central America or elsewhere, and no misunderstanding by the signatories of the Washington conventions of the strictly impartial attitude of the United States, the Department has in contemplation, in the event the hostile movement against the Government of Salvador does not cease, the giving of publicity to all the information on the subject at its disposal, together with an official announcement of this Government’s policy.

You are instructed to present the matter in this sense to President Estrada Cabrera.

I am [etc.]

P. C. Knox.
  1. Copies sent to the Legations at San José, Tegucigalpa, Managua, and San Salvador.