File No. 814.51/253.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
agreement to arrange the payment of interest on
the foreign debt, and a decree approving it.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the sickness
of the Minister for Finance, and with special instructions from the
Constitutional President of the Republic for the purpose of resuming
the payment of interest on the foreign 4% bonds, and Mr. Andrew
Bickford, legal agent of the Council of Foreign Bondholders in
London, who in turn represents the holders of the above-mentioned 4%
bonds, have agreed on the following points:
1. The Minister for Finance will hand to the Agent of the
bondholders, as soon as possible, the certificates, for the payment
of the coffee export duty referred to in article 9 of the contract
of July 11, 1895, in sufficient quantity to cover the current
interest of the debt for the year 1912–14, so that the resumption of
this income can be made effective from the 1st of July of the
present year.
[Page 572]
Preference will be given these certificates and no other lien on the
coffee exportation tax will be admitted until those which apply to
the foreign 4% debt have been paid off.
2. To substitute for the certificates issued under the contract of
November 18, 1898, the Government of the Republic will proceed
without loss of time and in accord with the Council of Bondholders
at London, to issue new bonds to the total value of £29,656 with the
corresponding coupons, beginning with that which belongs to the half
year ending December 31, 1901; and will give the necessary
instructions to its London diplomatic representative for the
exchange and other acts.
3. The Government will also issue deferred certificates distinct from
those mentioned in the former articles, which will not earn
interest, for an equal sum to that of the past and unpaid interest
up to the 30th of June of the current year, and will give orders
that these be handed over to the Council of Bondholders in London as
soon as possible to take the place of the coupons.
4. The bondholders agree to suspend for four years, counting from
July 1st of this year, the recovery of the £15,000 which by virtue
of Article 6 of the contract of July 11, 1895, ought to be paid to
the amortization account of the debt.
5. At the end of four years the Council will treat with the
Government as to the manner of the amortization of the deferred
certificates mentioned in article 3 of this agreement.
Done in duplicate in the city of
Guatemala, May 10, 1913.
-
Luis Toledo Herrarte,
-
A. Bickford.
[Untitled]
Palace of the
Executive Power
,
Guatemala
,
May 12, 1913
.
Having seen the agreement made on the 10th of this month between the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, because of the sickness of the
Minister for Finance, and Mr. Andrew Bickford, agent for the Council
of Bondholders of the 4% foreign debt, to arrange the payment of
interest, and finding it in accordance with the instructions
communicated to that effect,
The Constitutional President of the Republic decrees:
That he approves the five articles of which the mentioned agreement
is composed, and that the part referring to the payment of the
above-mentioned interests shall be made a part of the General
Budget.
Let it be published.
Because of the sickness of the Minister for Finance, and the
inability to be present of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the
Minister for Government and Justice;
