Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 7, 1915

File No. 814.032/5.

Minister Leavell to the Secretary of State.

No. 160.]

American Legation,
Guatemala, March 9, 1915.

Sir: I have the honor to report that on the first day of the current month the Congress of Guatemala was convened in this capital. The message of President Manuel Estrada Cabrera was read to the Congress by the Foreign Minister.

That message I am forwarding in the pouch today with translations of the only two matters of particular interest to the Department which President Cabrera discussed in his message.

I have [etc.]

William Hayne Leavell.

[Inclosure—Translation—Extract.]

[Untitled]

Relations between Guatemala and the United States have been maintained according to the traditional bases of cordiality and sympathy. The Government of the Republic has been in continual communication with the Government of the great American nation and has viewed with gratitude the important initiatives taken by the Government of this friendly nation. The disastrous war which has been going on in the Old World since the month of July has brought about suddenly a situation which is unique in the New World and owing to this situation the necessity has arisen for the peoples of this hemisphere to settle many problems, principally economic ones, which did not exist formerly. As the centers of European production and the markets which consumed a great part of the American exports are for the moment closed, it has become necessary to turn our eyes to other countries and nothing is more natural than to take into consideration the geographical situation of the countries which are nearest to us in order to obtain with these countries better conditions for the marketing of our fruits as well as the centers of produce which are indispensable to the feeding of our commerce of importation. In order to facilitate this, various means have been suggested in the United States and an international conference is now being arranged. This conference has been called together by the American Government and will be for the purpose of discussing the most expeditious and surest methods for bringing about more considerable commercial and financial relations between the United States and the nations of Central and South America. * * *

The facility which will be lent by the new lines of steamships now gathering in the ports of Central America constitutes another factor in the development which, owing to international commerce, we hope will take place in a short time in these countries.

The opening of the Panama Canal, which has created a new commercial era for all the countries of the world and especially for the countries which like ourselves surround the Caribbean Sea, will without doubt be one of the most important events of the present century. Guatemala, courteously invited, will be represented at the ceremonies arranged for the celebration of this great incident and will make manifest the importance of the event and the firm friendship which unites us with the Great American Republic. * * *

The great success at the Exposition of Ghent and the Exposition of Tropical, Products in London, lead one to believe that an equal or even greater success may result at the exposition arranged for at San Francisco, California, in celebration of the inauguration of the Panama Canal, in the presence of which Guatemala could not remain indifferent in view of the real love that this country bears toward all progress and in view of the strong ties that unite us with the older sister of the countries of America, the democratic and liberal Republic of the United States.