File No. 817.032/8.
[Inclosure—Translation—Extract.]
[Untitled]
I have been as careful of peace abroad as I have been of internal
tranquility and have maintained the best of relations with our
sister republics of Central America and with all the nations of the
world.
The negotiations with the United States are still pending relative to
the convention which conceded to it under conditions very
advantageous for Nicaragua an option to construct a canal through
our territory by making use of the facilities offered by our great
lakes and the river San Juan del Norte. I deem it unnecessary to
present to you its preeminent importance which is already realised
by all parties peacefully inclined and whose beneficial consequences
we perhaps can as yet but little appreciate. So deep rooted is our
conviction in this respect that—unheeding unfounded alarms that this
treaty has excited among certain foreign governments, who have given
grounds not only for mere suspicion but have shown their hostile
intentions—we have hastened our diplomatic negotiations in favor of
the convention, which means inalterable peace among us, a prosperous
and civilising development, the guaranty of our sovereign rights,
loyally promised by a strong friendly nation.
Another of the most cruel obstacles found in the path taken in search
of the good of the country, has been the precarious economic
situation. At times when the Government has wished to begin its
progressive advances it has met with the insuperable barrier of dire
need and general poverty. To remedy this is decided to send the
Minister of Finance, Don Pedro Rafael Cuadra, to the United States
as financial agent, in order to endeavor to procure funds sufficient
to pay the public debt. This has been a chief purpose of the
administration, in which it has persevered with earnestness, because
we understand that with this payment the prosperity of the business
of Nicaraguans would be reestablished after the failure brought on
by the State; and immediately deriving from this prosperity is the
general prosperity and happiness of the country, which is the most
beneficent assurance of peace.
Although I cannot yet announce a complete success in these labors of
the Government, some good has been attained through the loan
contract for one million of dollars celebrated with the bankers
Brown Brothers and Co., and J. & W. Seligman & Co. The money
acquired has been applied to completing the monetary conversion, to
increasing the capital of the National Bank, to the payment of
deferred salaries, and a sum of one hundred thousand dollars to the
payment of the judgments of the Mixed Commission not exceeding one
hundred dollars. The latter, although it establishes a sort of
exception or [Page 1021] privilege,
has been done in protection of the poor and laboring classes of the
country who are the most needy.
Even though this small loan has produced some relief to the economic
situation, and has redeemed our internal revenues, we do not think
that the mission of our financial agent is as yet concluded. He
continues to remain there to negotiate another larger loan which
will place us in a position to pay our floating debt. To this end we
requested authority of the National Assembly, during its recent
extraordinary sessions, for the emission of bonds to liquidate this
debt, either all or the part which may remain unpaid after paying
the other part in cash.
The chief points in the success of these negotiations consist in the
bank contract and the increase of the monetary conversion fund, by
virtue of which on institution is strengthened which is necessary to
the commerce of the country and assures definitively the prestige of
the new money of Nicaragua.
By these same contracts, with the previous authority of the honorable
Assembly, the sale was made for one million dollars of 51% of the
shares of the Compañía Ferrocarril del Pacífico, the Government
keeping in its possession the remaining 49%; and the same company
was given a concession for the construction of a railway within five
years from San Juan del Sur on the Pacific to San Jorge, a port on
the Great Lake. The economic interest of the bankers, tied up in
this enterprise, will redound to our advantage by virtue of the
improvements in the railway; and as far as the railway from San Juan
del Sur to San Jorge is concerned it is most opportune, because in
addition to being the beginning of rapid communication with the
southern Department which it will most directly benefit, it will be
the natural terminus of the mixed interoceanic route in connection
with the projected railway to the Atlantic.