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Legation of Guatemala, Mexico, August 21, 1874.
Memorandum presented by the undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Guatemala, to His Excellency Mr. José María Lafragua, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican Republic.
After examining with the greatest care all the documents found in the archives of the Legation in my charge concerning the various questions pending between Guatemala and Mexico, I now fulfill the duty of submitting to the enlightened consideration of Your Excellency the present memorandum as a basis for the conferences begun on the 22d of last July.
I would waive all mention of the obstacles hitherto encountered in bringing to a happy conclusion the treaties proposed between the two republics, and especially that concerning territorial limits, if it were not for the fact that in official documents Guatemala has been charged with unwillingness to conclude such treaties. This appears from the Memoir presented by Your Excellency to the Congress of the Union last year, and more explicitly from the documents concerning measures proposed for the development of the agricultural wealth of Soconusco presented by the Finance Department to the Congress of 1871. In this latter document it is stated that Mexico has always been ready to enter into friendly and equitable treaties with Guatemala, but that the latter power has refused to sign them under the belief, or at least the hope, of some time recovering the state of Chiapas. This is inexact. A rapid glance at the protocols of the conferences held at different periods between the commissioners of the two countries will demonstrate that Guatemala has not only been ever ready to negotiate treaties with Mexico, but that she has carried her condescension as
