File No. 815.032/7.
[Untitled]
[The message of the President, Don Manuel Bonilla, was read to the Congress of Honduras January 1, 1913, and transmitted to the Secretary of State January 8, 1913, by the American Minister, Mr. White. The following is the only passage referring to the United States:]
[Translation—Extract.]
I must mention the very cordial relations which my Government cultivates with the American, European, and some Asiatic nations, among which are prominent those that exist with the United States of America, due in large measure to the fact that the main import and export trade of Honduras is with that nation, and that the chief foreign enterprises established in this country are also American, immigrants and contractors of that nationality arriving here constantly on all kinds of business and being always heard and often heeded, and if not heeded oftener than they are the fault lies not with the Government but with the contractors themselves.
During the past year the cooperation of Honduras was asked for six international congresses, all held in the United States. I should have liked to see the country represented in all of them, but owing to the importance of the matters to be treated and in order to comply with the kind invitations extended, but we were able to send representatives to only two of them.
We were also asked to participate with our products in the International Rubber Exposition opened last September in New York, and we have been official invited to the International Panama-American Exposition to be opened in San Francisco in 1915, in order to take part in which you will be asked to appropriate the necessary funds.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of my Government will give you a detailed account of the matters just referred to and of all those connected with our relations with the United States; but I can not pass over in silence the visit made to Honduras by Mr. Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State of that great nation, in March of last year [1912], for which visit I was so grateful, which I so highly appreciated, and in response to which and in order to express at the same time thanks for so signal a demonstration of cordiality and deference, I accredited to Washington an extraordinary mission charged with conveying the gratitude of my Government for the visit.
I must likewise not refrain from mentioning a fact which, while it caused alarm at first, subsequently afforded a patent demonstration [Page 591] not only of the cordiality of the relations existing between this Government and that of Washington, but also of the spirit of rectitude and justice which actuates the decisions of the latter. I refer to the case of the National Railroad, which you at your last session ordered restored to the nation because it was being illegally and unduly administered by a person who was its lessee but who had no right to keep it in his possession for his own exclusive benefit.
The details of what occurred will be communicated to you by the Secretaries for Foreign Affairs and of Fomento and Public Works, so that it will suffice for me to recall the fact that when the Political Governor of Cortés, in pursuance of orders from the Executive, proceeded to take possession of the railroad by virtue of an inventory and previous notice to the agent of the ex-lessee to participate in the delivery, the Commander of the American war ship Petrel, anchored in the waters of Puerto Cortés, landed sailors of the crew of his ship to take possession of the railroad pending receipt of instructions from Washington and Tegucigalpa. This gave rise to a protest on the part of my Government, made to the American Legation established in this capital, on account of the violation of the national territory and owing to the acts committed by the Commander of the Petrel, who, in compliance with immediate orders from the Washington Government, reembarked his forces, declaring that the act was performed under his exclusive responsibility and without the authorization of his Government, as was confirmed by the Minister of the United States in this capital, who, on this occasion as on all others, has taken special pains to maintain and even strengthen the bonds of sympathy and cordiality which happily unite us with the Republic of the North.
The Government has likewise claimed for the Public Treasury the revenues from the wharf and lighthouse of Puerto Cortés, illegally held to the detriment of the revenues of the Republic and which are at present administered by the proper revenue office.