714.1515/971: Telegram
The Minister in Honduras (Summerlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 8—12:47 a.m.]
107. In reply to the Department’s telegram 78, October 25, 5 p.m. I have received today a note dated November 6 from the Minister for Foreign Affairs addressed to the Secretary of State in which, after repeating [Page 968] the substance of your note of October 25, he continues as follows:
“In reply I am happy to inform Your Excellency according to instructions from the most excellent President of Honduras that my Government confirms the information with which the most excellent Minister Summerlin has been good enough to furnish Your Excellency to the effect that it is disposed to accept that our boundary dispute with Guatemala instead of being decided by the most excellent President of the United States of America as arbitrator in conformity with its most fervent desire, be decided by an arbitrator which that high functionary may choose from among the distinguished United States members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, it being stipulated that such arbitration should be a condition [juridical],41 taking into consideration the specific classes of evidence of which Your Excellency is aware; that my Government is happy that the new proposal accepted by it had been discussed informally with the Government of Guatemala, [through] the most excellent American Minister in that republic, and that the result of that discussion had afforded grounds to hope for an eventual settlement of the question on a basis satisfactory to both parties; and therefore agrees with Your Excellency that it is evident that further progress can best be achieved by a frank and friendly conference; and that my Government, [profoundly grateful] to Your Excellency’s for the invitation to the proposed conference it has been good enough to extend, accepts it and will opportunely authorize its Minister in Washington and name one or more delegates to meet in that capital with the delegate or delegates of Guatemala solemnly to undertake negotiations, it being understood that these negotiations will have as a basis the proposal of Your Excellency’s Government that the arbitrator in this connection may be one of the members of the United States of America on the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague and that the reservations which my Government made to the effect that the decision shall repose on a juridical basis will be taken into consideration. My Government will view with satisfaction if representatives of the Government of the United States may be present at this conference.
In replying in these terms to Your Excellency’s courteous note, I cannot omit mentioning the eagerness with which my Government has received your proposal, as much on account of its origin in a respectable [respected] Government which has given to Honduras proofs of true friendship and obtained interest in favor of the peace and tranquillity of this Republic and of the respect for its rights, as on account of being animated with sentiments of fraternal affection for Guatemala with whom it one day formed part of the Federation of Central America and with whom it again hopes to unite in order to constitute with the other Central American countries a single nation. In case the conference should obtain no result, my Government states in advance that the question will remain in the same status that it was on August 5 of this year, that is, before the steps undertaken by Your Excellency’s Government in favor of the new formula suggested for the settlement and favoring [having] the most excellent President of the United States as arbitrator; failing him, accepting also with the greatest pleasure [Page 969] that the arbitrator be the President of the honorable Supreme Court of the same nation.
With the hope that Your Excellency may inform me for all practical purposes of the decision of the Government of Guatemala in regard to the above-mentioned invitation, I avail myself of this opportunity, et cetera.”
In his note transmitting the above note, the Minister for Foreign Affairs added:
“Also I beg Your Excellency confidentially to inform the most excellent Secretary of State, as an amplification of the reply which I have today the honor of addressing to him, that my Government seeing that the Government of the United States of America is generously preoccupied to the end that a solution of our boundary question be arrived at under the conditions expressed in the above-mentioned note of October 25, would be grateful if it would interpose its good offices with the Government of Guatemala so that for its part the status quo may be maintained as it was determined in 1918; thereby assuring that the conference may have a spirit of cordiality which may contribute to its success.”
Repeated to Guatemala.
- “debiendo ser juridico el arbitraje.”↩