714.1515/949
The Guatemalan Minister for Foreign Affairs (Aguirre) to the Secretary of State30
[Received October 8.]
227/224.I(73–69)(02)
Mr. Secretary of State: The Government of Guatemala wishes to ask the Government of the United States through the worthy medium of the Department of State that it kindly continue lending its friendly mediation, on the questions of territorial boundaries between Guatemala and Honduras, which were suspended in September of last year, 1928, because of the election period in which the last named country entered and the change of Government which was the immediate consequence of that event.
The Government of Guatemala is moved to make this request by the conviction that it will find in the Government of the United States the consistent upholder of the highest principles of justice, embodied in the last altruistic initiative which culminated in the Multilateral Pact that outlaws war30a and seeks the civilized way of averting it, so as to realize the kingdom of peace in the world.
And as the North American nation has done that, well may the Republic of Guatemala ask it to continue its interrupted mediation [Page 956] and again do that further service to the cause of good harmony between two Central American nations, unfortunately kept apart by the boundary dispute which has not found the proper solution which my Government keenly desires.
In April of last year the mediation of the Department of State brought about the Cuyamel Conference intended to bring about a course which would permit of a truce for a final settlement of the border. Guatemala took to Cuyamel its firm purpose to promote a satisfactory arrangement and in order to do so put forth every effort consistent with the justice of its cause and the uprightness of its intentions. The Honorable Mr. Davis who represented the mediator realized the difficulties of the present time and displayed his striking gifts of goodness and fairness, so as to bring to an agreement the representatives of the two contending republics, but he could not do so; and it is not for Guatemala to say whether it cooperated sincerely and righteously with the views of the representative of the Department of State nor where the blame for the failure of that generous mediation can be placed.
In that condition of affairs the Department of State addressed the Governments concerned and proposed that they submit their boundary question to the decision of the Central American International Tribunal, under the Convention signed in Washington on February 7, 1923, providing for the creation of that tribunal so as to refer to it precisely as its text says “all controversies or questions now existing between them or may supervene, whatever their nature and origin may be.”31
The Government of Guatemala unreservedly accepted the suggestion of the Department of State because it believed it to be fair, wise, and even compulsory within the Arbitration Convention signed by the two republics and approved and ratified by their constitutional organizations.
Honduras did not accept the discreet suggestion of the American Government and it was impossible to make it then depart from its obstinate denial, notwithstanding the obvious reasonings with which the Department of State fought the mistaken assertions of the Honduran Chancellory.
The formula which the Department of State proposed to have considered together with the colonial law the vital interests residing in the country in dispute for a just determination of the border meant an accurate conception of the worth of what goes as the fundamental conditions of life, as compared with the actual facts of [Page 957] good faith, of devotion to work, of the cooperation of the economic forces that give birth to the great interests which constitute the mother country that have tilled its soil, brought its railways and ports into existence; which promoted the colonization of its waste lands in which the dead [desafiaron: they defied] the harsh climate of the tropics and there left their bones to enrich the lots inherited by their children; neither was it to be left out of the account that since 1796, Guatemala created the first stock company for the navigation of the Motagua, the needed money being subscribed by the trade of the City of Guatemala; and that four later attempts also were made in the same sense with the principal national river which takes its source in the center of the Republic; and there should also be considered the interests that Honduras might have created and might have created bonds [vincularlos] on the land that is disputed to us. And all is to be pondered over, considered and measured with the sound judgment of a court that would embody the conscience of Central America and in which the representatives of the mediator Government and the highest Latin-American jurists would have a seat. Guatemala has made no objection to the tribunal listening, as is Honduras’ wish, to the opinion of the Conquerors [conquistadores], the geographical maps made under the empirical methods of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries; or to the Royal Orders and Cedulas of Philip II and other Spanish monarchs being taken into consideration. The Government of Guatemala did not and does not object to there being brought before the court every element that may throw light and end injustice; but it believes that the Department of State visualizes what is the present life of the old provinces of the Kingdom of Guatemala and that that truth can not and must not be lost sight of unless it be intended to ignore the genesis of nationalities.
When Honduras rejected the proposition of the Department of State made through the illustrious medium of Secretary Kellogg the Honduran country was in the midst of the election period. Professional politicians were hoisting as their flag the conquest of the Motagua; and the popular passions aroused by the jingo speeches and partisan press called upon their followers to win the election. No one was behind in political platforms to offer at least the nearest valley, but those who pinned their prestige on the future holding of the Puerto Barrios and Guatemala railway were in the majority.32
The general situation has now undergone a change and it is possible that more equanimity in the views of the Honduran politicians will make it possible for them to take a more reasonable course.
[Page 958]In the meanwhile the situation of the boundary question has continued comparatively grave; the Cuyamel Fruit Company bringing into play a moral force, which can not be resisted and seems to challenge the most sacred rights and the signed Conventions, is moving farther forward every day into the land of Guatemala, under the protection of Honduran concessions. Every party of its workers carries the usurping flag of Honduras in usurpation and although there be a status quo which is invoked to prevent Guatemala from moving within its house that same status is that which is used by Honduras through the North American Company in order to move deeper and deeper into the [our] land.
The Government of Guatemala has protested against the acts committed in violation of the status quo but the Government of Honduras will not even go to the trouble of returning an answer which courtesy demands.
The Government of Guatemala, aware of its rights and responsibilities has maintained a cautious attitude as far as it is humanly possible and does not wish to leave that path unless compelled to do so by the necessities of a needful defense.
The Government of Guatemala believes that the Government of the United States must see in the Guatemala gesture which I now have the honor to make a keen desire to arrive at a satisfactory and fair settlement of the boundary question through the interposition of the friendly offices of the Department of State. It may be that the Government of Honduras in a sentiment of legality and sound judgment may now give more attention to the friendly suggestion of the Government of the United States and refer its differences with Guatemala to the International Central American Tribunal for a decision.
My Government would have had recourse [habria deseado acudir] to the means afforded by Article 13 of the Convention for the creation of the International Central American Tribunal by compelling Honduras to sign the protocol for the organization of the tribunal in the form prescribed by the Convention, and file its case, but the fact that the Government of Honduras has not made up the list of its judges as prescribed by Article 2 of the Convention and the list of thirty jurists for the organization of the tribunal is not ready, stands in the way.
The Convention of February 7, 1923, was approved and ratified by the Government of Honduras; but it has not been properly executed with regard to the appointment of judges thus defeating the purposes that were taken into account when the treaty was signed.
Please accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the earnest thanks of the Government of Guatemala for the kind reception you will be pleased to give to this matter and especially the assurances of my highest consideration and particular esteem.
- Handed to Assistant Secretary White by the Guatemalan Minister on October 8, 1929.↩
- Treaty for the Renunciation of War, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 153.↩
- See Conference on Central American Affairs, pp. 296, 297. The portion quoted from article 1 should read: “all controversies or questions which now exist between them or which may hereafter arise, whatever their nature or origin.”↩
- The Spanish reads: “pero sobraron quienes afirmaran sus prestigios sobre la futura posesión del ferrocarril de Guatemala al Atlàntico y de Puerto Barrios.”↩