No. 172.
Señor Cruz to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
October 14, 1882. (Received October 25.)
Sir: In pursuance of instructions from his Excellency the President of the Republic of Guatemala, I have the honor to address your excellency, for the purpose of informing you that, as his Excellency told your excellency he intended to do, he addressed the Government of the United States of Mexico, in order to bring about a settlement of the boundary question, which was pending with Guatemala, and in order to stipulate that it should be decided by the arbitration of his Excellency the President of the United States of America.
A frank and friendly understanding having been reached with the representative of the Mexican Republic at Washington, the preliminary basis of a treaty was signed at New York, on the 12th of August last. According to said basis, the dividing line between the Republic of Guatemala and that of Mexico will be drawn the province of Chiapas and its department of Soconusco being considered as an integral part of the territory of the United States of Mexico. According to the same basis, when the line is drawn, actual possession is to be respected, and if the two governments cannot agree, a commission will be appointed to draw it; and according to said basis, in case of a disagreement, recourse will be had to the Government of the United States of America, in order that his Excellency the President may decide it in the capacity of arbitrator, without appeal.
[Page 333]In the preliminary convention it was also stipulated that, within six months from the date on which it was signed, the final boundary treaty should be signed in the city of Mexico, and the minister of Guatemala in that republic has already sent telegrams stating that the final treaty has now been signed.
His Excellency General Barrios was awaiting this information, in order to communicate it to your excellency’s government, but not having as yet received it, and having made all the preparations to return to this country, he has deemed it his duty to transmit this information concerning all that has taken place. On his arrival in Guatemala, and when the treaty shall have been received, the department of foreign relations will send your excellency a copy thereof, and likewise of the preliminary basis decided upon at New York.
The President entertains the pleasing hope that the matter will be satisfactorily settled, and he thinks that it will perhaps be unnecessary to trouble his Excellency the President of the United States of America to act as arbitrator in the case. He nevertheless trusts that if it shall be necessary to have recourse to him, according to the stipulations of the treaty, he will be pleased, as he promised, to do the two countries the great favor of settling the question by his arbitration whenever they may solicit it.
I avail myself of this occasion to offer your excellency and your government, in the name of the President of Guatemala and also in my own, the warmest thanks for the kind welcome that was extended to us on our arrival in this hospitable country, and for the attention which the government was pleased to show to the chief magistrate of the Guatemalan nation, and I have the honor to assure you that I am, with the most distinguished consideration, your very obedient servant,