and to that end caused the respective ministers in Washington to be informally sounded. It then developed that a most gratifying movement had originated among them on the suggestion of the minister of Costa Rica toward a meeting of the five ministers here, under authorization of their respective governments, to conclude a provisional protocol providing for a formal conference to assemble upon the concurrent invitation of the Presidents of Mexico and the United States; for the friendly assistance of representatives of the Presidents of Mexico and the United States at such conference; for the unanimous. choice of its place and date of meeting; and for a solemn engagement on the part of the five Central American Republics to maintain a mutually pacific attitude pending such conference. This proposal has been most fortunately carried out by the signature of the projected protocol on the 17th instant, in the presence of the Chargé d'Affaires of Mexico and the Acting Secretary of State of the United States of America. Señor Godoy, who has been kept constantly informed of the movement, will have sent you the text of the protocol.

In view of this happy step, the way appears to be clear for you and me to address concurrently to the respective Central American executives the invitation we have had in view. I beg to submit to Your Excellency the following draft of a message which I am ready to send if you will do likewise, and I invite your suggestions as to its tenor and language:

I received in due course the gratifying response made by Your Excellency to my message of the 28th of August, in which I urged, concurrently with His Excellency the President of Mexico, the need of peaceable and harmonious relations between the five Central American Republics, and tendered my good offices toward bringing about the suggested peace conference among them.

I have been glad to see that the unqualified acceptance, by Your Excellency and by your Central American colleagues, of the friendly proposals made by the President of Mexico and by me, has been followed by a successful movement among the Central American representatives in Washington to open the way for such a conference by agreeing upon the place and date thereof and by concluding a mutual engagement that the good relations of the Central American States shall be maintained pending the meeting of the conference and its results. Being made aware of the preliminary protocol signed by the duly authorized representatives of the five Central American States in Washington on the 17th instant, I now have the pleasure, concurrently with His Excellency the President of the United Mexican States, to invite Your Excellency-as I in like manner invite the Executives of the other four Central American Republicsto name a commissioner or commissioner to meet commissioners named by the other Republics of Central America, in formal conference, in the city of Washington, during the first fifteen days of November next, to discuss the steps to be taken and the measures to be adopted in order to adjust any differences which may exist among said Republics, or any of them, and for the purpose of concluding a treaty which shall determine their general relations." THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

File No. 6775/116.

CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE PROTOCOL, SIGNED AT WASHINGTON SEPTEMBER 17, 1907.

[Translation.]

We, the representatives of the five Central American Republics, having met in the city of Washington at the instance of Their Excel

a Sent September 21, see page 648.

lencies the Presidents of the United States of America and of the United Mexican States in order to devise the means of preserving the good relations among said Republics and of bringing about permanent peace in those countries, and for the purpose of establishing bases conducive to the attainment of such ends, being duly authorized by our respective Governments, have agreed to the following:

ART. I. Following a formal invitation which, as is understood, is to be made simultaneously to each of the five Central American Republics by Their Excellencies the Presidents of the United States of America and of the United Mexican States, a conference of the plenipotentiaries to be appointed for the purpose by the Governments of the said Republics, viz, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, shall meet during the first fifteen days of November next in the city of Washington for the purpose of discussing the steps to be taken and the measures to be adopted in order to adjust any differences which may exist among said Republics, or any of them, and for the purpose of concluding a treaty which shall determine their general relations.

ART. II. Their Excellencies the Presidents of the Central American Republics shall invite Their Excellencies the Presidents of the United States of America and of the United Mexican States to appoint, if they deem proper, their respective representatives to lend their good and impartial offices in a purely friendly way toward the realization of the objects of the conference.

ART. III. Until the conference meets and accomplishes the lofty mission devolving upon it, the five Central American Republics, to wit, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, agree to maintain peace and good relations among one another, and they respectively assume the obligation not to commit or allow to be committed any act which might disturb their mutual tranquillity. To this end they shall refrain from any armed demonstration on their respective frontiers and shall withdraw their naval forces to their territorial waters.

ART. IV. If any unforseen question should unfortunately arise among any of the said Republics pending the meeting of the conference, and if it should be impossible to adjust it by the friendly means of diplomacy, it is mutually agreed that the parties concerned shall submit the difference to the good counsels of His Excellency the President of the United States of America or of the President of the United Mexican States, or of both Presidents jointly, according to circumstances and in conformity with the agreement to be concluded for the purpose.

Signed in Washington the seventeenth day of the month of September, one thousand nine hundred and seven.

J. B. CALVO.

LUIS TOLEDO HERRARTE.
LUIS F. COREA.

F. MEJIA.

ANGEL UGARTE.

File No. 6775/108b.

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Lee.

[Telegram.-Paraphrase.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 17, 1907.

(Mr. Adee informs Mr. Lee that the Central American peace protocol, which has been signed by the five ministers, provides for full conference at Washington early in November, and stipulates a peaceable attitude in the meantime. He adds that the Presidents of the United States and Mexico will extend formal invitation to each Central American State in a few days.)

File No. 6775/136.

The Secretary of the Preliminary Central American Conference to the Acting Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 19, 1907. SIR: I have the honor to transcribe to your excellency the resolution adopted at the second session of the Preliminary Central American Conference held in this city, reading as follows:

Third. It was resolved by acclamation to extend to Their Excellencies the Presidents of the United States of America and of the United Mexican States the most earnest thanks for their praiseworthy and disinterested efforts in the cause of Central American peace, and to express due acknowledgment to His Excellency President Roosevelt for the good will he evidenced in accepting that the peace conference be held in Washington and to His Excellency President Diaz for the generous purposes he has deigned to evince in this same respect, and in so far as Mexico is concerned.

I beg, in the name of the representatives of Central America, that your excellency will acquaint His Excellency the President of the United States with the foregoing resolution and that you will accept the assurances of the most distinguished consideration with which I am, etc.,

ANGEL UGARTE.

File No. 6775/122-123.

The President of Mexico to President Roosevelt.

[Telegram.-Translation.]

MEXICO, September 20, 1907.

I have had the honor to receive Your Excellency's telegram dated the 14th instant in reply to mine of the 30th of August relative to the motion of the minister of Nicaragua and to the wish of the presidents of the other Central American Republics being consulted as to the place where the proposed conference should meet. I note, with genuine satisfaction, that, on the motion of the minister of Costa Rica it has been agreed to hold the said conference in Washington

during the first fifteen days of November next and that the five ministers of the said Republics, duly empowered, signed a preliminary agreement for the maintenance of peace by their Governments until the conference shall have taken effect. The draft of telegrams which Your Excellency graciously submits to my judgment appears to me to meet the case entirely and I will therefore send one substantially like it to-morrow to the five presidents of Central America, hoping that Your Excellency will be pleased to send yours on the same day.

PORFIRIO DIAZ.

File No. 6775/99.

No. 96.]

The Acting Secretary of State to the Mexican Chargé.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 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.

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.

I received in due course the gratifying response made by Your Excellency to my message of the 28th of August, in which I urged, concurrently with His Excellency the President of Mexico, the need of peaceful and harmonious relations between the five Central American Republics, and tendered my good offices toward bringing about the suggested peace conference among them.

I have been glad to see that the unqualified acceptance, by Your Excellency and by your Central American colleagues of the friendly proposals made by the President of Mexico and by me, has been followed by a successful movement among the Central American representatives in Washington to open the way for such a conference by agreeing upon the place and date thereof and by concluding a mutual engagement that the good relations of the Central American States shall be maintained pending the meeting of the conference and its results.

Being made aware of the preliminary protocol signed by the duly authorized representatives of the five Central American States in Washington on the 17th instant, I now have the pleasure, concurrently with His Excellency the President of the United Mexican States, to invite Your Excellency-as I in like manner invite the Executives of the other four Central American Republics-to name a commissioner or commissioners to meet commissioners named by the other Republics of Central America, in formal conference, in the city of Washington, during the first fifteen days of November next, to discuss the steps to be taken and the measures to be adopted in order to adjust any differences which may exist among said republics, or any of them, and for the purpose of concluding a treaty which shall determine their general, relations.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

File No. 6775/122-123.

President Roosevelt to the President of Mexico.

[Telegram.]

WASHINGTON, September 23, 1907. Upon receipt of your telegram of the 20th, my proposed message was sent on the 21st to each of the five Central American Presidents. I share Your Excellency's satisfaction that the Central American

"Mutatus mutandis to the Presidents of Nicaragua, Honduras, Salvador, and Costa Rica