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Rh arbitration in accordance with the policy adopted by the recent Pan-American Congress, war was inevitable, between the two governments, with the reasonable probability of one or more of the lesser Latin republics of Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador, being ready to assist Guatemala in the repelling of any invasion from Mexico. Article four in the treaty of 1883 calls for arbitration in case of future disagreement. Neither governments seemed willing to respect this provision, and while both were willing to make certain concessions, neither one was ready to unqualifiedly recede from its position.

The view of the matter taken from a Mexican fighting soldier's standpoint, can be no better illustrated than by a quotation from President Diaz's speech in reply to a press request of January 26th for his position in regard to possible war. After referring to the delicate controversy then being sustained between the two governments, and declaring that the Mexican government had already demonstrated that the greatest blessing ever offered to the country "was the present period of reconstruction and the happy and visible development of peace, which the government will only allow to be interrupted when a pertinacious aggressor insists on assailing the national honor." In the event of this contingency, the government, he declared, would confront the situation with faith and energy. "We soldiers of the generation now passing away feel our blood tingle when we think that we may be able to baptize in a war, every way just on our part, the generation coming on, in whose hands we are going to leave our country and its fate."