File No. 814.51/189.
The Legation of Guatemala to the Department of State.
The Legation of Guatemala this morning received from the Guatemalan Government a cablegram, as follows:
I reply to your cablegram of Tuesday relative to a settlement with the English bondholders and to a solution of the economic arrangement with the American bankers by stating that we are giving consideration to this immediate solution above everything else; but as the bankers modified their proposals almost fundamentally when we asked elucidation on three points we are at present endeavoring to reach an understanding of these modifications only, by cable and mail communication with you and with the bankers’ representative in this city. I believe that in order to obtain the most favorable results, you should earnestly solicit the moral support of the Honorable Department of State, as has been proffered us and which it has vouchsafed to exercise in our behalf, restraining the British demands which we regard as premature inasmuch as a solution satisfactory to the bondholders was on the eve of being reached. You may also give assurance that such solution will not be delayed beyond a few days—only the time necessary to permit the official opinion of the bankers to reach here.
Wherefore, most respectfully, and expressing anew the profound gratitude of the Guatemalan Government for the friendly courtesies of the State Department in this as in all other affairs in which it has exercised a conciliatory and amiable mediation, the Legation of Guatemala urges that the Department of State will not find it inexpedient to kindly accede to the wishes expressed in the foregoing cablegram of the Government of Guatemala in the belief that this powerful aid will greatly facilitate an adjustment with the British bondholders within a few days through a general adjustment of Guatemalan finances by means of a contract with the American bankers.
In so doing the Legation has the honor to again offer its respectful salutations to the Honorable Department of State.
Washington, D. C. , October 25, 1912.