File No. 713.001/58
[Inclosure—Translation]
The Nicaraguan Minister of
Foreign Relations to the Salvadorean Minister of Foreign Relations
I have the honor to again address your excellency referring to your
courteous telegram of 16th instant, in which after being pleased to
acknowledge the receipt of my despatch of 9th instant you express
the pain with which the most excellent Government of El Salvador has
read the sentiments of my above despatch, which has occasioned the
considerations expressed in your excellency’s telegraphic
communication which I have noted and which ends with assurances of
amity and fraternity for that most excellent Government, which it is
my high honor to represent.
It is not my purpose, Mr. Minister, to enter into any controversy on
this point, but simply to bring to the attention of that most
excellent Government, through the worthy medium of your excellency,
the opinion of my Government with respect to the questions raised by
your excellency.
Nicaragua considers that the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of
1907 which establishes grounds for the general relations of the
Central American countries and stipulates by way of recommendation
certain essential points which were the object of special
Conventions, constitutes an instrument entirely independent of the
other Conventions signed on that same date, which are in their way
separate and complete treaties, as each one of them appears in the
correct form for that kind of documents, and as each one of them
also contains its respective clause of a different period of time
for its sole and own caducity, without having other bond or legal
dependency than the high and generous spirit which dominated at its
celebration.
Confirming by comparison that which precedes, I cite the case of the
withdrawal from another of the treaties of the series on future
Central American Conventions made by my predecessor, Don Diego M.
Chameorro, on December 16, 1913, without there being made at that
time observations of any kind regarding the consequences of the
withdrawal.
In reality there truly was no necessity in the present case for the
formal procedure of the withdrawal, so long as Article 27 of the
respective convention conclusively declares, without other provision
similar to that of the other treaties of the series, that “it shall
always be considered in force for the period of ten
[Page 34]
years”, the fatal provision to which my
Government has submitted for the purpose of its notification of the
9th of this month, as much to comply with a provision of the
Convention itself, as to avoid possible objections relative to the
period of enforcement of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity. In
other words, it is an act which is fulfilled by itself alone,
without Nicaragua’s contracting special responsibilities, and which
if it leaves unstable the first clause of the General Treaty of
Peace and Amity in nothing does it disagree with the entirety of the
others, as neither has it been affected by the unstability which
existed in fact in Articles IV, V, XII and XIII of the General
Treaty itself, except by this circumstance that it forms a separate
matter, notwithstanding its importance, in the series of the
Conventions of Washington, this country ceases to take part in the
international concert created by such conventions signed and
observed by Nicaragua, which not only has not been exempt from
contributing to the maintenance of the Central American Court of
Justice, but also rendering all homage to that High Tribunal it
always maintained its representative, and recently sent as its
attorney to treat of one phase of the question on account of its
high importance no one less than the President of the Judicial Power
and of the Supreme Court of Justice of this Republic.
My Government pleased to return in full the friendly and fraternal
sentiments of your excellency expressed in your message of reply,
sentiments which have always united both Republics from the days of
the Independence, as the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of that
country, Dr. Manuel Castro R., expressed them in a telegram of reply
to this Department of February 6, 1911, hopes that they will
continue bound by an indestructible union between our peoples and
Governments, and that both nourished and inspired with such
sentiments of true Central-Americanism they shall prevail above
every other consideration for the maintenance of mutual respect and
reciprocal confidence, the base and support of a strong, close and
well understood friendship, as that which happily unites our Sister
States.
Omitting referring for want of space to the other points, which I
consider of secondary character, in your courteous telegraphic
communication, I have the honor of renewing to your excellency the
assurances of my very high esteem and most distinguished
consideration with which I am pleased to sign myself.