714.1515/952: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Guatemala (Geissler)
60. Legation’s 131, October 21, 5 p.m. Please address a note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the following terms:
“Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note dated September 24, 1929, wherein, on behalf of the Government of Guatemala, you bespeak the continuance of the friendly mediation of this Government in the effort to bring about a settlement of the controversy which unfortunately exists between the Governments of Guatemala and Honduras with respect to their mutual boundary.
I am deeply sensible of the honor the Government of Guatemala does the Government of the United States in thus requesting its continued cooperation in this effort toward a better understanding between the two neighboring Republics, and it affords me especial pleasure to be able to inform Your Excellency of the readiness of the Government of the United States to continue to lend its aid in connection with this matter as heretofore.
As Your Excellency has been informally advised by the American Minister at Guatemala City the Government of Honduras recently expressed its willingness to modify its proposal that the boundary dispute be submitted to arbitration by the President of the United States, and to propose instead that it be arbitrated by a jurist named by the President of the United States from among the United States members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, it being stipulated that such arbitration should be juridical, taking into [Page 964] account certain specified classes of evidence. While the results of this discussion have afforded grounds to hope for an eventual settlement of the question on a basis satisfactory to both parties, it is evident that further progress can best be achieved by a frank and friendly exchange of views. The Government of the United States is encouraged by the repeated evidences of the earnest desire which animates Your Excellency’s Government and that of Honduras to find a solution of this important problem, to hope that a basis for a satisfactory settlement can be found through such a conference, and it accordingly takes pleasure in extending hereby to the Government of Guatemala an earnest invitation to authorize its Minister at Washington or to name another delegate, or delegates, duly empowered, to meet with a delegate, or delegates, from the Republic of Honduras in a conference at which representatives of the Government of the United States will, if so desired by the two Governments concerned, be present. A similar invitation is being addressed to the Government of Honduras.
Trusting that Your Excellency’s Government may find it possible to accept this invitation, and that in doing so there may be initiated negotiations whose outcome will be satisfactory to the two Governments for whom the Government of the United States entertains sentiments of the highest regard, I avail myself of this opportunity to extend to Your Excellency the renewed assurances of my most distinguished consideration. Henry L. Stimson.”