File No. 6775/99.
The Acting Secretary of State to the Mexican Chargé.
Washington, September 20, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 9th instant, in which you advise the department of the receipt by President Diaz of a message from the Provisional President of Honduras stating that general peace in Central America depended upon the preservation of the neutrality of Honduras, and that the neutrality of Honduras could only be preserved by the Governments of the United States and Mexico obtaining assurances from the Governments of the republics which are neighbors of Honduras that they would not covertly support an invasion of Honduras. You further ask the opinion of this Government on the question presented.
I have the honor to say in reply that at the date of the receipt of your note the Governments of the United States and Mexico had entered upon negotiations with a view to arranging a conference of the five Central American Republics, in order to devise means of preserving good relations among those Republics and of bringing about a permanent peace.
At this conference a protocol was, as you are aware, signed on the 17th instant, providing for a conference at this capital, during the first fifteen days of November next, of the plenipotentiaries of the five Central American Republics, for the discussion of the steps to be taken and the measures to be adopted in order to adjust any differences which might exist among those Republics, or any of them, and for the purpose of concluding a treaty which should determine their general relations.
By Article III of the protocol of September 17, 1907, it was stipulated that, pending the assembling of the conference, the five Republics agreed to maintain peace and good relations among one another and assumed the obligation not to commit or allow to be committed any act which might disturb their mutual tranquillity. They further stipulated that they would refrain from any armed demonstration on their respective frontiers, and that they would withdraw their naval forces to their territorial waters.
The fourth article provides for the submission of any question arising between any of the Central American States not susceptible of diplomatic treatment to the good counsels of the Presidents of the United States and Mexico.
[Page 648]It would seem, therefore, that under the terms of this protocol the contingency apprehended in your note may be appropriately dealt with should it arise.
Accept, etc.,