Page:Difficulties Between Mexico and Guatemala.djvu/40

 Before entering upon the examination of the project of limits, I ought to reply to a charge unjustly made against the Republic of Mexico, attributing to its reluctance the delays experienced in this important business. From 1825 until the present day, Mexico has constantly proposed the immediate tracing of the limits. This appears from the notes of Mr. Alaman and the protocols of Messrs. Manuel Diez de Bonilla and Juan Nepomuceno de Pereda, envoys of Mexico in that republic. Guatemala, on the contrary, has ever avoided the tracing of limits, desiring the maintenance of the statu quo, and thus postponing indefinitely the solution of so important an affair.

These official documents fully prove who has been at fault in this delay. Mexico has constantly sought for the tracing of the limits, which she has considered as the only means of closing the door against claims which, though perchance of slight importance at the outset, are magnified by the lapse of time into affairs of great moment. Guatemala, on the contrary, has constantly refused the tracing of limits, and has always labored for the preservation of the statu quo, thus leaving open a wide door for quarrels between private individuals, which subsequently become conflicts