Page:Difficulties Between Mexico and Guatemala.djvu/17

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portion of her territory claimed by Guatemala, as upon a future occasion he would demonstrate. The complaints of the Guatemalans, he added, are not sincere, and the government of General Barrios knew very well how different are the facts of the case from the statements made to the government at Washington. Even before consulting the President, he could assure Mr. Morgan that the good offices of his government were received with high esteem by the Government of Mexico. There is as yet, he added, no motive what-ever for the fear that the latter will appeal to force to resolve the boundary question with Guatemala, which for many years has been under pacific and patient discussion, the Mexican Government having always been the promoter of the discussion, and of its solution by friendly measures.

The recent events of which the Guatemalan Government complained had been the subject of discussions in which the arguments of Mexico had not been answered, the last notes of the Mexican Government having usually been left without reply. The tactics of the Government of Guatemala had consisted in appealing, for lack of reasons, to delays and evasions. The present state of the question is, that the survey of the frontier by commissions of engineers appointed by the two governments is still pending. The appointment of these commissions was made by virtue of a convention promoted by Mexico, in which was stipulated the suspension of negotiations upon boundaries until the said frontier could be surveyed, and certain points which formed the basis of discussion could be astronomically determined.

The period fixed by the convention expired definitively before the scientific commissions had concluded