dence of your sentiments you gave me by directing Mr. J. G. Schurman, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to represent you at the obsequies of my well beloved father and to voice your heart felt condolences for the harrowing bereavement I have just undergone, has profoundly moved me. I therefore have it at heart to express to you my deeply felt gratitude for that mark of attention. Called to the Throne of Greece by the order of succession, I have just taken the reins of the Governinent. I beg you to feel assured that I shall take the utmost pains to maintain and draw closer and closer the excellent relations which so happily exist between Greece and the United States of America. Convinced that you will not deny me your invaluable assistance in achieving this undertaking of so great advantage to our two countries, I beg you, very dear and great friend, to accept assurances of my high esteem and enduring friendship.

Written at Athens, April 20/May 3, 1913.

CONSTANTINE. L. COROMILAS.

File No. 868.001 G 29/18.

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister.

No. 37.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 24, 1913. SIR: I inclose, with office copy, a letter addressed by the President to the King of the Hellenes, acknowledging His Majesty's letter in which he informed the President of the death, at the hands of an assassin, of His Majesty George I, King of the Hellenes, and his accession to the throne.

You will forward the copy to the Foreign Office and deliver the original in the manner most agreeable to His Majesty. I am [etc.]

[Inclosure.]

J. B. MOORE.

The President to King Constantine.

GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: I have received the letter in which Your Majesty advised me of the death on the 5/18 of May [March] last, at the hands of an assassin, of Your Majesty's dearly beloved father, His Majesty George I, King of the Hellenes, and your accession to the throne.

In expressing my sincere and heartfelt sympathy for Your Majesty's family and the people of Greece in their sad bereavement, I must at the same time give utterance to the satisfaction with which I received the announcement that you had ascended to the throne, and assure Your Majesty that your wishes for the continuance of the friendly relations subsisting between the two countries are fully appreciated and cordially reciprocated.

May God have Your Majesty in His safe and holy keeping.

Your Good Friend,

By the President:

W. J. BRYAN,

Secretary of State.

Washington, July 15, 1913.

WOODROW WILSON.

GUATEMALA.

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT, MANUEL ESTRADA CABRERA, TO THE NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

File No. 814.032/2.

NOTE. The message of President Manuel Estrada C. was read to the National Legislative Assembly March 1, 1913, and transmitted to the Secretary of State March 8, 1913 by the American Chargé d'Affaires, Mr. Wilson. The following are the only passages referring to the United States:

[Translation.]

Our relations with the great Republic of the United States of North America become every day closer, not only on account of the facilities offered by the maritime and railway communications, but also due to the increase of our commercial relations which are the logical consequence thereof, and to the interest which the American people feel for a new and industrious country placed but three days journey from their ports. A conclusive proof of this felicitous circumstance and of the friendly relations which unite both peoples and Governments was the visit with which his excellency the Secretary of State, in behalf of His Excellency the President of the United States of America, honored Guatemala in the month of March of last year: a high distinction which the Government and whole country appreciated in all its worth and which it endeavored to return in the most appropriate form. As the Honorable Assembly was holding sessions at that time of the year it also received the distinguished American statesman in its midst, and the Government hastened to respond to the courtesy of His Excellency the President of that friendly nation, by commissioning the Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs personally to make known to the Government of Washington the gratitude of the nation and of the administration that governs it.

And finally, the labor which has been undertaken by the Department of Finance and Public Credit for the financial reorganization of the country, is about to receive a conclusive resolution, and I hope, if such an event be realized during the present session of the Honorable Assembly, that I have accomplished one of my most earnest aspirations: to fulfill the only promise left to be discharged of those which I made to the nation when I entered its service which I have not yet been able to perform, due to causes stronger than my constant and sincere wish, but which today is near such a solution as is better suited to the sacred interests of the nation.

FINANCIAL AFFAIRS: RESTITUTION OF THE COFFEE REVENUES TO BRITISH BONDHOLDERS;. GOOD OFFICES OF THE UNITED STATES.1

File No. 814.51/199.

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 6, 1913. MY DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency's note of December 30, 1912, communicating, in reply to this Department's memorandum of December 3, 1912, on the subject of the Guatemalan debt, the desire of the British Government to have the question arbitrated or the coffee revenues restored.

5

I enclose herewith a copy of the Unified Loan Agreement negotiated between reputable American bankers and the Government of Guatemala. I also enclose extracts from a letter addressed to Mr. Cooper on December 26, 1912, by Mr. Frederick Strauss of J. and W. Seligman and Company. I hope that you will see fit to telegraph to the Foreign Office a brief outline of the salient and favorable features of the agreement recommending the earnest consideration of the proposal and that as Mr. Cooper already has a copy of it the Foreign Office should consult him and study his copy in order to avoid unfortunate delay.

I would also be pleased if your excellency would strongly urge the adoption of this plan, pointing out the deep concern of this Government in the carrying out by this means of its broad policy with regard to Central America where its interests are necessarily of predominant importance.

I have been surprised at the lack of any information in your note tending to show that the Foreign Office has given any consideration to the proposal outlined in the Department's memorandum of December 3d. Pending additional indications as to the ultimate deeision of Great Britain with regard to this Unified Loan Agreement, which will also be submitted to the Foreign Office by the American Embassy in London, I have decided for the present to refrain from replying further to your excellency's note of December 30th. I may add, however, that it will cause me considerable surprise if the British Government, after receiving a copy of this loan agreement, should fail to give it the favorable consideration which I believe it merits.

I am [etc.]

P. C. KNOX.

1 Continued from For. Rel. 1912, pp. 500-511.

2 For. Rel. 1912, p. 510.

* Id. 508.

4 Not printed.

Printed as inclosure to the Secretary's No. 1828, of January 7, sec p. 561.

File No. 814.51/203A.

The Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires at London.

[Telegram-Paraphrase.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 7, 1913.

A long instruction is being sent to you concerning the rehabilitation of the finances of Guatemala. Copies of the loan agreement submitted by American bankers to the Council of foreign bondholders will be inclosed. Pending arrival of the above you will at once orally express to the Foreign Office the deep interest of this Government in the plan for the rehabilitation of the finances of Guatemala. Make it clear that the Government of the United States feels sure that when the facts and circumstances are understood the British Government will examine the question from a much broader point of view and will give friendlier consideration to the predominant interests of the United States in the Caribbean republics, from which the pending question regarding Guatemala cannot be separated. Express the hope that, pending the fuller representations which you will make upon receipt of further instructions, the Foreign Office will confer with the Council of foreign bondholders, to whom a copy of the arrangements as affecting British subjects has been sent.

KNOX.

File No. 814.51/199.

The Secretary of State to the American Chargé d'Affaires at London.

No. 1828.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, January 7, 1913.

SIR: With reference to the Department's instruction of December 6, 1912, on the subject of the Guatemalan debt, you are now informed that a note from the British Embassy, dated December 30, 1912, and purporting to reply to the Department's memorandum of December 3, 1912, has now been received. A copy thereof, together with the Department's reply, is enclosed herewith for your information. Two copies of the Unified Loan Agreement arranged between the American bankers and the Government of Guatemala are also enclosed, one for the files of the Embassy and one for communication to the Foreign Office. The Department is also enclosing extracts from a letter addressed by Mr. Frederick Strauss, of Messrs. J. and W. Seligman and Company, to Mr. Cooper, of the Council of Foreign Bondholders, on December 26, 1912, which shows clearly the character of the proposed loan agreement and the consideration of the bankers for the bondholders in not wishing to have the agree ment signed until after the Council shall have recommended it to the bondholders, nor ratified by the Congress of Guatemala until after having been favorably voted upon by the bondholders themselves.

The British Embassy's note of December 30th is most surprising to this Government. As has been pointed out orally to Mr. Mitchell

1 For. Rel. 1912, p. 508.

2 Id., 510.

Id., 508 510.

Not printed.

Innes of the British Embassy, the attitude of Great Britain in demanding one and only one solution of the difficulty, especially when the solution is one likely to block the development of a wellrecognized policy of the United States in a sphere in which this Government is preeminently interested, would not appear consistent with even an ordinary regard for the broad interests and policies of the United States.

Considering, moreover, the special circumstances of the case, it is the judgment of the Department that in all probability the arrangement submitted by the bankers would secure to the bondholders better returns upon their money than any other measure which the Government of Guatemala could be induced to accept. You will note upon study of the Unified Loan Agreement, that, as pointed out in the Department's instruction of December 6th, it provides for the collection of the customs by an agency to be appointed by the bankers and through a system of certificates which are issuable only by the customs agency, thus assuring the direct payment to the agency of all the revenues derived from the export duty on coffee and from all the import duties payable in gold. Your attention is also directed to articles 7 and 14 of the agreement. The Department believes that the Ican contemplated by this agreement will be sufficiently well secured to relieve the bondholders of any fears such as they have felt in the Fast for the payment of the interest and prinicpal of the loan. Arbitration, on the other hand, could have at best only results of doubtful value. Even should it result in the restitution of the coffee revenues there would be no guaranty that what has occurred in the past would not recur in the future, namely, that the export tax on coffee might be reduced or the revenues diverted to other uses. And the delay incident to such an arbitration and the fulfilment of an arbitral award should also be contrasted with the present proposal to give the British bondholders new four-per-cent bonds in exchange, bond for bond, for their present four-per-cent bonds. The new bonds should pay regular interest and be redeemed at par through the operation of the sinking fund. This offer, as stated in Mr. Strauss' letter to Mr. Cooper, is considerably more favorable to the bondholders than the offer first contemplated by President Cabrera, viz: five-per-cent bonds to the amount of seventy-five per cent of their present holdings, instead of bond for bond.

Emphasis should be laid upon the fact that although the new loan will be not quite four times so large as the present British loan, the security behind it will be four times as great, and that by accepting the loan agreement the British bondholders will enter upon the enjoyment as security not only of the very coffee revenues the specific restitution of which the Foreign Office demands, but also of various other additional revenues.

The Department has stated orally to Mr. Mitchell Innes that it could not accede to the request of Great Britain that it should support the British demand for arbitration or for specific performance in restoring the coffee revenues. The British Embassy appears to be laboring under the misapprehension that this Government had already promised such support. What it actually agreed to in September, when asking a delay of twenty days in which Guatemala might negotiate through American bankers a satisfactory arrange