limitation of the territory of this Republic. An American hand, the just hand of Mr. Cleveland, of blessed memory, marked our boundaries on the north; and another American hand, the hand of Mr. White, in which hangs, happily for you and also for us, the scales of justice, will trace our southern frontier. In the arrangement that Costa Rica and Panama made to this effect, you put, out of consideration to both parties, the valuable contingent of your skill, your benevolence and friendly interest, and I am delighted to be able to take advantage of this occasion to express to you by word of mouth the profound gratitude that from that time we Costa Ricans owe to you, a gratitude that expands, now that we find ourselves honored with your visit. And I am confident that this advent of yours will leave in us a wake of fellow feeling, not like that made by the furrow that the ship forms in the waters, to be destroyed by them immediately afterwards, but a wake as wide and luminous as it is permanent. Based in these antecedents is inspired the cordiality with which I drink your health, Mr. Secretary, and also that of President Taft, and in the same way the health of the people of the United States; and as that great country does not now see in any quarter a cloud that may darken the splendor of its power, I hope that it may never see the refulgent sun of justice eclipsed on its horizons, so that its greatness and moderation, without losing their force for a moment, may continue shining over the world until the end of time. To your health, Mr. Secretary.

[Inclosure 2.]

Reply of Mr. Knox.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES, AND GENTEMEN: It is indeed a pleasure for me, Mr. President, to acknowledge how deeply I appreciate the generous sentiment you have proposed and the honor you do me, and through me the American people, by showering upon me your bounteous and cordial hospitality, thereby evincing your sympathetic response to the spirit which has inspired my mission to you. I know that I am acknowledging no feigned friendship or simulated courtesy, but that the great heart of Costa Rica has responded to the heart of her most northern sister republic. The similarity of our political organizations, our geographical proximity, the tendency of our commercial and industrial interests and policies, and our traditional and long-continued relations of friendship and good will inspired in the President of the United States the sincere desire that our sympathies, cooperation, and good understanding should increase, and for that reason he directed me to visit the Republic of Costa Rica and our other sister republics in the region of the Caribbean Sea, in order that I might carry to them a message of good will from the people and Government of the United States, and, further, that I might make that personal acquaintance with your public men and hospitable peoples to the end that such direct personal knowledge and understanding and appreciation might result in mutual advantage and cooperation for the advancement of our common interests.

It was with a feeling of genuine wonder and admiration that I arrived at your capital city after the marvelous ride from the coast, along the wonderful Revantazon, following its tortuous and difficult windings through the most beautiful tropical foliage until, arriving at the highlands, the verdure of the Temperate Zone at once met the eye. The ability to make this journey in so much comfort was, Mr. President, a suggestion of what the Costa Ricans have accomplished along other lines, and fully prepared me for the abundant evidences of the industry, thrift, tenacity, and culture of your people which I met at every hand.

It is with a feeling of gratified expectancy that one finds at every turn expressions of the traditional love of your people for education, not only in its practical forms, but for the higher arts, notably architecture and music, and to see in the happy and radiant faces of the children the reflection of the beauty of their mothers and sturdy qualities of their fathers.

It is given to few countries to make the just boast that within her borders the school-teachers outnumber the soldiers and that resting upon her bosom in the very center of America is the first perfect type of an international court of arbitral justice.

The attitude of the Government of the United States toward the peaceful settlement of international disputes, of which this court forms a model, has been consistently maintained since the foundation of our Government, as is

evidenced by the Treaty of Ghent. The attitude of the Republic of Costa Rica has likewise been consistent and is amply evidenced by the course adopted for the settlement of the century-old boundary dispute with Panama. I repeat, Mr. President, that the people of Costa Rica may justly felicitate themselves that in their very midst is the home of the Central American Court of Justice, the one tribunal before which one nation may bring another-yes, before which an individual may bring a nation-to determine before the bar of impartial justice the differences that exist between them. My Government and. I am sure, the Government of Mexico feel proud of the part played by them in the Central American Peace Conference, convoked under their auspices, out of which grew this international forum, which is the prototype of the court it has long been the desire of the United States to see established by the nations of the earth. In this connection, Mr. President, let me express the feeling of profound satisfaction that the people and Government of the United States entertain, not only because of the rapidly increasing prosperity of Costa Rica, but because of her love for peace, because of the respect she inspires in the family of nations, because she has laid the foundations of perpetual freedom upon the eternal rock of justice and occupies an exceptional and enviable position among the American repubiics and to the general distribution of property among her people, and because of the constantly increasing intimacy and friendliness between her people and our own.

It is but a short time, Mr. President, until at Panama a new highway of commerce will be opened to the world. That event, so conspicuous and significant, will remove the countries of the Caribbean Sea from their comparative isolation and place them upon the greatest highway on the globe, a highway from the northern to the southern, from the western to the eastern world. The republics of this hemisphere will be thrown into a new day and a new condition. It would be folly to enter that new day without a proper conception of its opportunities and possibilities for our common good. We should go into the new epoch as befits it, with new aspirations and enthusiasms and with greater promise. The casual relations which once marked our intercourse are now happily not casual, but they must be closer and more friendly still-so close, indeed, that as we labor to better human conditions this common end will be a bond of trust and hope.

I bear you, then, not only a message of good will, but one bespeaking a mutual understanding and union in aspiration and effort toward furthering the progress of the Western World through deeds of reciprocal helpfulness.

The free and equal republics which have established themselves upon this hemisphere have a singular harmony of destiny, and that is to bring their common form of government to the highest point of efficiency for the maintenance of popular rights. The greatest strength of these republics, whose heritage is so wonderful, lies in unity of aim and effort.

While we will all be more or less, in the future as in the past, engrossed in questions affecting our internal development and our own acute problems, it is wise to seize every opportunity to impress upon the world and upon ourselves that ours is a Pan-American union of lofty Pan-American public opinion, doing justice and exacting justice, disclaiming ignoble suspicion, and putting to scorn international acts of unworthiness when, unhappily, they may be found

among us.

Ladies and gentlemen, I propose the health, the happiness, and the prosperity of the President and people of Costa Rica.

File No. 033.1100 K77/213.

The President of Costa Rica to the President.

[Translation.]

GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: The People and Government of Costa Rica have been honored by the official visit of that distinguished diplomat the Honorable Philander C. Knox, your Secretary of State, who during his brief stay in this country made evident the great and noble endeavor of the American Government in behalf of the progress and welfare of the Republics of this continent on the basis of frater

nal union for their common destiny, with no other limits than those of their own sovereignty and independence. I have therefore found it appropriate, in view of so excellent a motive, to accredit as Special Envoy to Your Excellency don Joaquin Bernardo Calvo, the distinguished gentleman who is now the Minister Plenipotentiary of Costa Rica at Washington, with the charge to present to Your Excellency my fervent wishes for the happy outcome of that generous labor for American fraternity and for the growing prosperity of the Great Republic, admirable not only for its wonderful progress but even more for its wise institutions. In this sense I beg Your Excellency to receive unreservedly what Mr. Calvo will say to you, especially when he renews the expression of my lively desire for the personal happiness of Your Excellency.

I am, great and good friend, with high esteem,

THE PRESIDENT'S MANSION,

San José, May 20, 1912.

RICARDO JIMÉNEZ.

The President to the President of Costa Rica.

GREAT AND GOOD FRIEND: I have received from the hands of Señor Don Joaquin Bernardo Calvo Your Excellency's letter of May 20 last, in which you gave expression to the pleasure which the people of Costa Rica felt at the recent visit to your capital of Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State of the United States of America.

I cordially reciprocate the sentiments of friendship and good will which you in the name of the people of Costa Rica conveyed to me, and I assure you that the Government and people of the United States appreciate the friendly spirit shown towards the United States by the kindly and cordial manner in which Mr. Knox's visit was received.

Your good friend,

By the President:

P. C. KNOX,

Secretary of State.

WASHINGTON, July 10, 1912.

WM. H. TAFT.

CUBA.

VETERANISTA AGITATION-ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES.

The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State.

File No. 837.00/502.

No. 1184.]

AMERICAN LEGATION, Habana, November 10, 1911.

SIR: I have the honor to report that during the past month various associations of Cuban veterans of the wars for independence have been carrying on a systematic campaign to create popular feeling against the "guerrilleros "-Cubans who bore arms for the Spanish cause who are now in public office, and to force the national and local authorities to remove them from the public service. The veterans themselves disclaim any desire on their part to monopolize the public offices.

On the 21st ultimo, after a largely attended meeting at the National Theater, a committee of veterans headed by General Loynaz del Castillo and others called upon President Gómez at the Palace to inform him regarding a resolution which had been adopted at that meeting demanding the dismissal from public office of all "guerrilleros before the 27th of this month. In a fiery speech General Loynaz del Castillo informed the President that if their demands were not complied with "the veterans would know their duty." The President replied in a few dignified but emphatic words to the effect that while in thorough sympathy with his fellow-veterans his duty under the Constitution was to Cuba as a whole and that he was not to be intimidated by threats of any sort.

A demand has also been made upon practically all provincial governors and alcaldes throughout the island for the dismissal of guerrilleros" in provincial and municipal employ. The invariable answer has been that the employees against whom this demand is directed are protected by the provisions of the civil service law. In view of this obstacle arrangements have now been made to introduce in Congress a bill providing that any person who has borne arms against the Cuban cause should be ineligible for office under the civil service.

The agitation has recently become so acute as to cause general apprehension. The fears of the Government that serious trouble might result from this agitation induced Señor Sanguily, Secretary of State, to visit, last night, the headquarters in this city of the Veterans' Association.1 He called upon the large gathering of veterans, who awaited him, to make some reassuring declaration which would tend to allay public apprehension; harangued them at some length on the necessity for orderly procedure, and painted in glowing colors the horrors of possible oivil war or another American intervention. The veterans present were not responsive to this ap

1 Asociación de Veteranos de la Independencia,

peal; and, after some three hours of futile discussion, Señor Sanguily left the meeting without having achieved his object.

The subject is being widely discussed in all its aspects by the press and people-the more substantial elements appearing to approve the attitude of the Government-but it is impossible to foresee the outcome of the present agitation.

I have [etc.]

File No. 837.00/504.

[Extract.]

HUGH S. GIBSON.

No. 1188.]

NOVEMBER 13, 1911.

SIR: Referring to my dispatch No. 1184 of the 10th instant in regard to the agitation against the "guerrilleros" now holding office under the Cuban Government, I have the honor to report that on the 10th instant a bill was introduced in the Senate, by Senator Berrenguer, to amend the civil service law so as to exclude from public office all persons who fought against Cuban independence. The general feeling here is that the situation is fraught with grave possibilities. The chief danger appears to lie in the irresponsible acts of the leaders in the smaller country

* * *

File No. 837.00/506.

[Extract.]

HUGH S. GIBSON.

No. 1198.]

NOVEMBER 16, 1911.

SIR Referring to my dispatch No. 1198 [1184] of the 10th instant [etc.] I have the honor to report that after several conferences with the leaders of the veterans' associations President Gómez has agreed to the appointment of a commission of arbitration to reach an agreement on the question of office-holding by persons who bore arms against the cause of Cuban independence.

*

The Government is clearly alarmed by the threats of the veterans to take the law into their own hands unless all the "guerrilleros" are dismissed from office by November 27, and the President's acceptance of the arbitration idea is a complete retreat from his first stand of refusing to consider the demands of the veterans.

I have [etc.]

HUGH S. GIBSON.

File No. 837.00/510.

[Extract.]

No. 1207.]

NOVEMBER 21, 1911.

SIR: Referring to my dispatch No. 1198 of the 16th instant [etc.] I have the honor to report that an agreement reached yesterday by the commission has been approved by the President and by the Council of Veterans. Briefly stated, the agreement pro