Salvador of the Twentieth Century

by Percy F. Martin

The United States Secretary of State officials, who are so ably assisted by the co-operation of the Pan-American Bureau and its admirable monthly publication, The Bulletin, deserve every credit for the unflagging interest which they manifest in promoting and assisting their country's trade abroad. In this matter, at least, we might advantageously follow the example of our Transatlantic competitors. As it is, we should feel deeply grateful to the American Government for periodically issuing information which is as accessible to Britishers, or to any other nationalities, as to the Americans themselves. And it costs us nothing; which should be gratifying to that large class of individuals who enjoy getting something without putting their hands into their own pockets.

It seems a very remarkable fact that Salvador, like a great number of other Latin-American States, has been enabled to find in Great Britain a thoroughly capable and influential Consular representative, while Great Britain has so signally failed, except in some few instances, in securing similar representatives abroad. Nor is this circumstance the less noteworthy when it is observed that the Salvadorean Consul-General in London is not a native of that Republic, but an Irishman, and is probably one of the first—if not the only—Irishman who has filled a similar position. Mr. Mark Jamestown Kelly, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., etc., has been the Consular representative of both the Republics of Salvador and Honduras for over fifteen years, and it is only within the past few months that he has been compelled, owing to continued pressure of work in connection with the chairmanship of the Salvador Railway Company, to abandon his consular position in regard to Salvador. How greatly the Government of that State regretted Mr. Kelly's retirement, and how strong was the pressure brought to bear to induce him to withdraw his resignation, was fully evidenced in a remarkable letter of thanks which the Government addressed to Mr. Kelly lately, and from which the following is a brief extract. After referring in eloquent terms to the deep disappointment which the Government felt at Mr. Kelly's inability to reconsider the question of resignation, and having announced that the Executive had therefore most reluctantly accepted the inevitable, and had arranged to send over at an early date a representative to relieve Mr. Kelly of his official duties, Dr. Manuel E. Araujo, the President of the Republic (who has long been personally acquainted with Mr. Kelly), addressed him as follows:

"I deplore profoundly your resignation of the business of the Consulate-General, which with so much tact and industry you have been discharging during so long a lapse of time; and your resignation of your post, being based upon reasons which I cannot set aside, has this day at last been accepted by my Government, but with the hope that you will always contribute in one way or another with the very valuable contingent of your wisdom and experience in all matters relating to the good name and honour of Salvador. I tender to you in consequence, in my own name and in that of my country, the most whole-souled thanks for the very important services which you have afforded to us in the past, and which we do not doubt we shall continue to receive from your well-known magnanimity."

Mr. Mark Jamestown Kelly, F.R.G.S.
For 15 years Consul-General in Great Britain for Salvador (retired June, 1911), and Chairman of the Salvador Railway Company, Ld.

Mr. Kelly has undoubtedly rendered lasting and exceptional services to the State of Salvador during the long period over which he has represented its commercial and financial interests in this country. As its Financial Agent in Europe, he carried out the long and difficult negotiations which ended in successfully settling and discharging the foreign debt of the Republic, and permitted of that great undertaking, the construction of a through line of railway from the port of Acajutla to the Capital of San Salvador, being financed and completed. Last year Mr. Kelly also negotiated, with much tact and conspicuous ability, a new Salvador Foreign Loan, which to-day ranks as a gilt-edge security on the London Stock Exchange, and stands at a substantial premium.

Besides his Consular appointments, Mr. Mark J. Kelly holds the positions of Chairman of the Salvador Railway Company, Limited, and President of the Salvador Chamber of Commerce in London; while he is generally regarded as one of the greatest living authorities upon the questions of foreign exchange and Latin-American commerce.

For many years Mr. Kelly was identified with railway construction in Ecuador and later on with Salvador, and his great charm of manner, coupled with his extraordinary grasp of detail and intimate knowledge of finance in all its aspects, have combined to make his co-operation in financial and commercial matters a question of the greatest value to the latter country mentioned, as well as to all who have invested money therein. Mr. Kelly is a perfect Spanish scholar; and when I was travelling with him in Salvador, many of the natives with whom we conversed frankly informed me that, but for his distinctive European name, Mr. Kelly might very well pass for a pure-bred Spaniard or Spanish-American, so admirably did he converse in and write their language. Of the newly appointed Salvadorean Consul-General. Señor Don Artúro Ramón Ávila, I have spoken in Chapter III.

Major the Hon. William Heimké, who was appointed the Minister of the United States of America to Salvador in 1909, is a native of France, having been born in that country in 1847 and naturalized in the United States. He went to America at a very early age, and entered the regular army when he was but fifteen. He served with distinction during the Civil War, being engaged in several important battles. After the war he served as headquarters clerk under Generals Sherman, Pope, Hancock, and Sheridan, and he was also in the Quartermaster's and Commissary Departments. In 1881 he became purchasing agent for the Mexican Central Railroad, and in 1883 was appointed general manager of the Chihuahua and Durango Telephone Company in Mexico. In 1887 he again entered the service of the United States as Vice-Consul at Chihuahua. He was advanced to Consul in 1892, and retired in 1893. In 1897 he became Second Secretary of the United States Legation in Mexico, and was promoted First Secretary of their Legation in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1906. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Guatemala on March 10, 1908. Major Heimké is a member of the American Academy of Economic, Social, and Political Science of Philadelphia, and of the International Folk Lore Society of Chicago.