Page:Difficulties Between Mexico and Guatemala.djvu/10

 thrown off the Spanish domination. The changing fortunes of war resulted in the withdrawal of Mexican forces from most of that region, except the important provinces of Soconusco and Chiapas, which remained under their control. Since that time the boundaries between the two countries have never been adjusted upon a satisfactory basis. Mexico, become a republic, did not forego claims based on the imperial policy of conquest and absorption, while Guatemala, resisting further progress of Mexican arms, and disputing step by step the conquest already made, has never been able to come to a decision with her more powerful neighbor concerning the relative extension of their jurisdiction in the disputed strip of territory lying between the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the peninsula of Yucatan.

Under these circumstances the Government of Guatemala has made a formal application to the President of the United States to lend his good offices toward the restoration of a better state of feeling between the two republics. This application is made in frank and conciliatory terms, as to the natural protector of the rights and national integrity of the republican forms of government existing so near our shores, and to which we are bound by so many ties of history and of material interest.

This government can do no less than give friendly and considerate heed to the representations of Guatemala, even as it would be glad to do were the appeal made by Mexico in the interest of justice and a better understanding.

The events, fresh in the memory of the living generation of Mexicans, when the moral and material support of the United States, although then engaged