THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE
In December, 1907, a Central American Peace Conference was held at Washington, between delegates representing the five Central American republics—Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. Mexico and the United States were invited to participate in a friendly capacity and accepted the invitation. The conference grew out of the initiative taken during the previous summer by the presidents of the United States and Mexico, in an endeavor to secure an adjustment of then pending disputes between several of these republics, in some form that would secure permanent peace among them and foster their development. The conference was called together by the following note of the Secretary of State, addressed to the delegates:
Department of State,
Washington, November 11, 1907.
Excellencies: The plenipotentiaries of the five Central American republics of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador, appointed by their respective Governments in pursuance of the protocol signed in Washington on September 17, 1907, having arrived in the city of Washington for the purposes of the conference contemplated in the said protocol, I have the honor to request that the said plenipotentiaries, together with the representatives of the United Mexican States and of the United States of America, appointed pursuant to the second article of said protocol, convene in the building of the Bureau of American Republics in the city of Washington, on the fourteenth day of November, instant, at half past two in the afternoon.
I avail myself of this opportunity to offer to Your Excellencies the assurances of my highest consideration.
Elihu Root.
The formal sessions of the conference began December 13, and closed December 20. During this period nine treaties and conventions were concluded between the five republics, as follows:
1. A general treaty of peace and amity.
2. A convention additional to the general treaty of peace and amity.
3. A convention for the establishment of a Central American court of justice.
4. A protocol additional to the convention for the establishment of a Central American court of justice.
5. An extradition convention.
6. A convention for the establishment of an International Central American Bureau.
7. A convention for the establishment of a Central American pedagogical institute.
8. A convention concerning future Central American Conferences.
9. A convention concerning railway communications.
The most important were the general treaty of peace and amity, and the convention for the establishment of a Central American court of justice. The texts of these various conventions are found in Malloy's Treaties and Conventions of the United States, Volume II, pp. 2391-2420.
The Mexican Government was represented by His Excellency Señor Don Enrique C. Creel, ambassador at Washington, and the United States by Honorable William I. Buchanan.
At the opening session of the conference Mr. Root made the following address: