File No. 814.51/166.

The Minister of Guatemala to the Secretary of State .

[Translation.]

Sir: Immediately upon receipt of your excellency’s note of the 23d instant relative to the financial affairs of Guatemala I informed my Government thereof by cable, and I can now give you the satisfactory responses telegraphed to me by the President and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Permit me, in the first place, to express the high appreciation of the Government of Guatemala for the friendly interest which you [Page 501] have manifested in behalf of the Government of the United States, and which shows anew the noble spirit that it displays toward the peoples of the New World, for which we are sincerely grateful and which in my country we fully reciprocate.

The President charges me to say to your excellency that he firmly intends to lose no time in the matter of economic arrangements with American firms, and has practically concluded his examination of the several propositions submitted. The most acceptable of these requires sixty days for the determination of the changes considered necessary, especially as to the form of redeeming the English loan, and as he can not, on the other hand, constitutionally prolong the sessions of Congress, the Government will call an extraordinary session of the Legislative Assembly, as already announced by the Department of Hacienda and Public Credit, as soon as the said American firms return their respective contracts.

Everything therefore depends exclusively on the activity of the bankers, and the President hopes that what for so many years has not been attained will soon be accomplished by his Administration, realizing in deeds his most constant desire for an arrangement which, as your excellency says, will produce the best results for the development and welfare of Guatemala.

Accept [etc.]

Joaquín Méndez.