File No. 815.51/257.
The article mentions the sorry financial condition of Honduras, states
the causes, praises the mediation of our Government and the results,
speaks well of the efforts of the United States in support of the Monroe
Doctrine, and calls upon Hondurans to bring about a new order.
[Inclosure.—Translation.—Extract]
a new political regime for
honduras.
The Public Treasury of Honduras is depleted.
The budget scarcely meets the expenses of the administration.
The tariff is out of date. It is not the result of an economic,
scientific and well thought-out plan.
For many years our tariff has been in force without the reforms which
the movement of commerce and the variations of finance demand.
The Department of Finance does not progress very well.
Money is received in the national coffers without fixed rules and
without definite and stable procedure, and, nevertheless, Honduras
possesses abundant latent riches.
Its territory, according to calculations more or less exact, covers
158,000 square kilometers, possesses fertile lands, inexhaustible
mines, virgin forests abounding in valuable timber and mighty rivers
which can fertilize the whole country and give life to every kind of
agricultural product.
We believe that, with the Government of Dr. Bertrand, with “the
convergence of all political parties” imbued with the spirit of
national union and Honduran fraternity, a new historical era for
Honduras is inaugurated.
The intervention of the Government at Washington, in the enlightened
way in which it was conducted, is a safeguard, entrusting to the
honor of great American statesmen not only our political autonomy
but also our economic and commercial expansion, which will achieve
our credit and our public prosperity.
Erroneous prejudices and local mistrust should not be encouraged.
The Government at Washington has a solemn obligation before the
civilized world; that of safeguarding and guaranteeing the autonomy
of Spanish America.
The obligation of the United States of America has been fulfilled
generously and loyally.
Therefore, there is no reason to fear the United States of
America.
Naturally that nation is alive to its interests.
Its commerce and its industries inundate our lands.
Its vessels place us in daily contact with American customs, with
American activity and with the astonishing progress of that great
country.
Its financial crises directly affect us.
Wall street is well known to us and its cotton crop interests us as
though it were our own.
[Page 583]
An earnest Government in Honduras, then, one that is judicious and
loyal to its obligations, with a stable, well-ordered economic
system, supported by honest and intelligent patriotism on the part
of all Hondurans, permeated with the economic spirit of our
neighbors on the North, will form the initiative of a political
régime well-grounded on the national credit and the public
prosperity.
