ADDRESSES IN THE UNITED STATES ON LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS


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.