714.1515/696a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Guatemala (Geissler)
51. Please transmit immediately the following communication textually to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, cabling the Department at once day and hour of delivery. The communication will then be made public by the Department.
An identical communication and similar instruction is being forwarded to the Legation at Tegucigalpa.23
“Since 1918 the Department of State at the request of the Governments of Guatemala and Honduras has been serving as a friendly mediator in the matter of the adjustment of the boundary between the two countries. Through this friendly and disinterested cooperation useful exchanges of views have taken place. Animated by a sincere desire to be helpful to both parties, so far as lies in my power, and after a careful review of the situation, I now feel that I would be acting in the best interests of both nations by submitting the following proposal, which I earnestly commend to their favorable consideration:
- 1.
- That the Governments of Guatemala and Honduras immediately submit the question of the boundary between their territories unreservedly to arbitration by the International Central American Tribunal established by the Convention of February 7, 1923, signed at Washington by the representatives of Guatemala and Honduras24 and duly ratified by those Governments, Article 1 of which provides as follows: ‘The Contracting Parties agree to submit to the International Tribunal established by the present Convention all controversies or questions which now exist between them or which may hereafter arise, whatever their nature or origin, in the event that they have failed to reach an understanding through diplomatic channels, or have not accepted some other form of arbitration, or have not agreed to submit said questions or controversies to the decision of another tribunal.’
- 2.
- That the said Tribunal be fully empowered to fix a common boundary between Guatemala and Honduras, taking into consideration [Page 747] the political, economic and commercial interests of both states and also to determine the amount of any compensation which it may find necessary or desirable for either party to make to the other; the decisions of the Tribunal to be, of course, conclusive and binding upon both parties.
- 3.
- That the existing Mixed Commission now in recess be convened at a time and place to be designated by its Chairman for the purpose of drawing up and signing the protocol contemplated in Article VII of the aforesaid Convention.
I am encouraged to make this proposal because I have become firmly convinced of the sincere desire of the governments and peoples of Guatemala and Honduras to eliminate this long-pending dispute and thus consolidate and put on a permanent footing friendly relations between them; and because I am inclined to feel that this method offers a more hopeful opportunity to arrive at a settlement than negotiations through diplomatic channels. In this connection I also venture to recall that at the Central American Conference of 1923 the Governments of Guatemala and Honduras through their duly authorized plenipotentiaries publicly announced their decision to submit this boundary question to arbitration.25
I trust that both Governments may find it possible to welcome the opportunity of adjusting their differences in this manner, at the same time making to the cause of international arbitration an impressive contribution which can not fail to call forth the unanimous approval of civilized nations throughout the world. (Signed) Frank B. Kellogg.”