File No. 033.1100 K77/139.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
San Salvador, March 16, 1912.
Sir: Referring to the Department’s telegram of the 4th instant, I have the honor to render the following report on the reception and entertainment of the Secretary of State during his sojourn in Salvador:
On the afternoon of the 9th instant a special commission of Government officials, headed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and accompanied by a committee of prominent citizens” with their wives and daughters, which party I also accompanied, went in a special train to the port of Acajutla to meet and greet the Secretary of State.
At 9.30 o’clock a. m. on the 10th instant the U. S. S. Maryland arrived in the waters of Acajutla, and after dropping anchor exchanged with a land battery of Salvadoran artillery a national salute of 21 guns. At 1 o’clock of the same day the Secretary, together with the persons accompanying him, disembarked, and as his launch approached the pier a salute of 19 guns was fired in his honor by the Salvadoran battery on shore. When the Secretary and his party had landed and after I had presented Mr. Knox to Doctor Castro Ramírez, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, a band of the Salvadoran Government played the American national anthem; and after the Minister for Foreign Affairs had presented to the Secretary of State the Salvadoran officials and the ladies and the other gentlemen forming the commission and committee for the reception of the Secretary and his party, our train started for this capital, where we arrived at 4.20 p.m. At the railway station here the Secretary of State was welcomed to Salvador in the name of the President of the Republic by Mr. Rafael Guirola Duke, Minister of Finance and Public Credit, and by a second commission of high Government officials of the [Page 1334] society of this capital; and after a repetition of the American national anthem, the Secretary, together with his family and suite, was escorted in automobiles and Government carriages through a double file of military from the railway station to the center of the city, to the residence of Deputy don Carlos Meléndez, which had been placed at the exclusive disposal of Secretary Knox and his official family of ten persons and where a detachment of cadets of the Polytechnic School was in attendance upon the Secretary day and night as a guard of honor.
At 10 o’clock on the morning of the 11th instant the Secretary of State was received in public audience by the President of the Republic at the National Palace in the presence of the Cabinet, other high Government officials, and members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps; and after the exchange between the Secretary and President Araujo of the brief discourses usual on such occasions, Doctor Castro Ramírez, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, presented to the Secretary of State the members of the Judiciary, of the National Assembly, of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, and of the municipality.
From 4 to 6 p.m. of this same day I had the honor and the pleasure of tendering to the Secretary of State and Mrs. Knox a reception and garden party at this Legation, for which I had issued formal invitations and which was attended by the President of the Republic and his family, by Cabinet officers, members of the Diplomatic and Consular bodies, and by high officials of the Government in the legislative and judicial branches, and besides, as said by the Diario de El Salvador, “all that San Salvador has of select, elegant, and cultured society had complete representation among both ladies and gentlemen.”
At 7.30 o’clock there was given by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs a state banquet at the National Palace in honor of the Secretary of State, which was attended by 120”persons and at which banquet there were exchanged between Dr. Castro Ramírez, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the Secretary of State, notable discourses.
At 10 o’clock on the morning of the 12th instant there was tendered to the Secretary of State by the Salvadoran Minister of War, a military review at the Campo de Marte lasting two hours, which was also attended by the President of the Republic and his family, and by about two thousand other spectators; and at 9 o’clock p.m. of the same day the program of the festivities arranged for the entertainment of the Secretary of State during his visit to Salvador terminated with a grand ball given in his honor and in that of Mrs. Knox by the President of the Republic, in the Casino Salvadoreño, and I may say that it has rarely fallen to my lot to witness a more beautiful ball than this.
At 8.45 a. m. of the 13th instant the Secretary of State with his suite, and accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the same ladies and gentlemen who formed the commission that had escorted him from the coast to this capital, departed in a special train for Acajutla, President Araujo with his wife and daughter, and also members of the Cabinet, and other high officials of the Government being at the railway station of this city to bid the Secretary and his [Page 1335] party goodbye. We arrived at Acajutla at about noon, and upon the kind invitation of the Secretary the above-named commission boarded the U. S. S. Maryland and partook of a delightful luncheon. When the Secretary of State left Salvadoran soil a salute of 19 guns was fired in his honor by the Salvadoran land battery. At 3 o’clock the commission bade farewell to the Secretary of State and Mrs. Knox, as well as to the members of his party, and came ashore.
During the nights of the 10th, 11th, and 12th instant all Government edifices were splendidly illuminated and presented an aspect most imposing and pleasing.
From my observation, I do not hesitate to say that during his stay in Salvador the Secretary of State was the recipient of very many manifestations of respectful homage and of every courtesy at the hands of all who had the good fortune to meet him; and since he has gone I have heard in social as well as in official circles none but expressions of the extreme pleasure which his presence among us had brought, and of profound regrets at his departure.
I have [etc.]