CHAPTER IX
United States information for traders—Improved Consular services—Mr. W. E. Coldwell—United States and Salvador Government—Bureau of Pan-American Republics—Mr. Mark J. Kelly—Exceptional services—The American Minister, Major W. Heimké—Salvadorean Minister to U.S.A., Señor Federico Mejía—Central American Peace Conference and the United States.
How beneficial is the attitude of the United States of America in collecting and disseminating every particle of information which can prove of the slightest service to American traders! Month by month, through the medium of the Pan-American Bureau Bulletin, a Government-endowed institution journal of the utmost utility, not only to American traders, but to those of every country of the world, every item of commercial, industrial, and financial information culled from Latin-American countries is published in tabular form, and supplied at a merely nominal figure to all who care to avail themselves of it. Such information is primarily the result of the researches and the reports made by United States Consuls in the countries mentioned, and it is perfectly certain that none are permitted to enjoy "allowances" of £200 a year, as is our Consul at San Salvador, without showing something in return for such payment in the shape of a report of some kind or other.
Here I may record that of Mr. Walter Edmund Coldwell, our unsalaried Consul at San Salvador, I have nothing whatever to say but what is complimentary, since he is personally a very amiable and courteous gentleman, ready and willing at any time to aid any Britisher seeking his advice, and which, in view of his experience and complete knowledge of Spanish, is certainly of great value. I feel certain that, had any request come from the Foreign Office addressed to Mr. Coldwell for a report upon trade conditions and prospects in Salvador, he would have been perfectly prepared to supply, as he is undoubtedly capable of supplying, it in view of his long residence, extending over twelve years. I go further, and suggest that had Mr. Coldwell not waited for any such request, but had acted upon his own initiative and sent in a report to the Foreign Office, such would either have been pigeonholed or the Consul have been snubbed for his pains. It cannot be too often observed, nor too emphatically pointed out, that it is not the officials of our Consular Service who are wholly to blame; it is the "System" perpetuated by successive Governments—it matters not one pin's head whether they be Liberals or Conservatives or a hybrid mixture of many political parties—which is all wrong, and the ignorant and indifferent Permanent Officials at Downing Street who are responsible for the appalling condition of incompetency which our Consular Service to-day displays.
The following incident will show with what care and attention the Government of the United States follow every little incident and occurrence that can in any way affect trade relations between themselves and the smaller Latin-American States. In the month of February, 1909, the United States Minister sent to his Government a complaint to the effect that the Salvadorean Government allowed favoured-nation treatment to certain articles of French origin imported into the Republic, which treatment was not accorded to similar articles from the United States. The United States Government at once instructed the Minister at San Salvador to ask for an explanation, and he as promptly got it; not, perhaps, in the precise terms which he could have wished, but—he got it! The answer came from the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the following terms:
"The Treaty of Peace and Amity, Commerce and Consular Rights celebrated between Salvador and the United States on December 6, 1870, having become inoperative by reason of the denunciation of the same on the part of the Government of Salvador, in accordance with the prearranged conditions from May 30, 1893, merchandise proceeding from the United States can only be accorded such treatment in the Customs Houses of Salvador as is provided for in the general tariff law of the Republic, without special concessions or privileges."
The answer was so convincing and so conclusive that the United States Government forthwith proceeded to celebrate a fresh Treaty with the Republic, and has since then enjoyed all the privileges which such can procure.
Upon a previous occasion—namely, in 1907—the United States Vice-Consul in San Salvador having requested from the Government of the Republic a general statement of economic conditions prevailing throughout the country, the reply was published very soon afterwards in the form of an elaborate and complete account of the commercial, industrial, and financial conditions of the Republic, the whole taking up the greater portion of a special number of the Diario Oficial. One cannot imagine a British Consul having the enterprise to make any such request from a foreign Government to which he is accredited, although the information, if sought, would be as readily forthcoming as it was for an American Vice-Consul. But when we witness the sorry spectacle of British officials allowing—or being allowed—twenty years to pass by without having issued any kind of report for the information of his countrymen, what can be expected?