Salvador of the Twentieth Century

by Percy F. Martin

Considerable as is the space which I have given up in this volume to the relations of the Salvadorean, Honduranean, and Nicaraguan troubles, I find it impossible to publish in its entirety, as I should have liked to have done, the text of the complaints presented by the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua against that of Salvador, and which were heard before and decided by the Central American Court of Justice, as well as the final answer and arguments which were later on issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Salvador. All these documents, which fill two substantial and closely-printed pamphlets, the one consisting of 84 pages and the other of 108 pages, are extremely interesting and instructive, serving as they do to throw a particularly clear light upon the methods of some of the Central American States, which imagine that they are acting in an "honourable" manner and fulfilling a respectable destiny.

It is significant that these publications, which are complete and official, were issued by the Government of Salvador, from which it is clear at least that this country had nothing to fear from the world at large being made acquainted with the history of the troubles. No less worthy of comment is it that neither Honduras nor Nicaragua has ever made any rejoinder to the arguments and conclusions of the Court of Justice or of the Salvadorean Government, and in this action, perhaps, they have for the first time shown some intelligent discretion.

The impartial reader of these publications can only arrive at one conclusion, nor, indeed, is it even necessary that he should know anything of either the countries or their inhabitants to be able to form some sensible deduction from the actual position. The correspondence, the genuineness of which is unchallenged, speaks for itself. It seems clear that the Government of Salvador, while subscribing in Washington the Central American Treaty of Peace, swore faithfully to fulfil the International Agreement which bound it to its sister Republics, and at the same time opened for itself and for them, as it had every reason to hope and believe, a new era of confraternity to be maintained in dignity and mutual advantage. To the principles of that Treaty, Salvador adhered with the utmost rigour; and, in the face of the most intense provocation, refused to depart one inch from its solemn obligations. The attitude which this small but high-principled State showed at this time of trouble and trial has evoked the admiration and commendation of all statesmen, independently of country, or creed, or political belief.

Penitentiary at San Salvador.

Officers' Club Room, Military Polytechnic School.

To particularize more minutely from the abundant evidence which exists to this effect, and which may be gathered from every page of these two pamphlets, is unnecessary in this volume; but one fact at least I may call attention to, as exemplifying the honesty of purpose and the good faith of the Salvadorean Government towards the Republic of Honduras, at a time, moreover, when only armed retaliation could reasonably have been looked for.

In all probability the friendliness of President Figueroa for his neighbours would never have been questioned, nor their relations have been in any way embittered, but for the Machiavellian interference of Santos Zelaya. It is an eloquent fact of the sympathy felt for Honduras, that President Figueroa of Salvador wrote personally, and almost affectionately, to President Dávila, on June 10, 1907, drawing his attention to the revolutionary plans of certain Honduranean exiles who were making Salvadorean territory their temporary headquarters. Only feelings of friendship and good-nature could have prompted a neighbourly action of this kind, which, however, some few months afterwards was rewarded by President Dávila allowing his troops to join forces with the Nicaraguans in their invasion of Salvadorean territory.

This I may say in defence of ex-President Miguel R. Dávila, whom I know quite well, and with whom I have had many long and interesting conversations: he is a man of great honesty of purpose, but of singularly weak will; in fact, he has neither initiative nor power of moral resistance. Quiet and modest to an extraordinary degree, speaking very little above a whisper, and with the manners of a curate rather than those of a soldier, one is inclined to rather wonder que diable fait-il dans cette galère of President of an unruly and half-savage Republic.