CENTRAL AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 77, 24 December 1907, Page 7

CENTRAL AMERICA.

' , A PEACE CONFERENCE. HIGH COURT OF APPEAL SET UP. POSITION OF HONDURAS. QT TEIiEGItANI—FRES3 ASSOCIATION—COPTBIGUT, • : ■;'/; (Rec. Dec. 23, 9.56 p.m.) . : New York, December 23. /A Peace Conference representing the fivo Central American Republics. (Costa Rica, Guatemala, San , Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua), after one' month's sitting in Washington, : has reconciled all conflicting interests, Tho Conference lias arranged for the neutralisation of- Honduras, and has established a High Court, to which all five Republics must submit' disputes.

Prcssuro brought by President Roosevelt of tho, United States and President Diaz of Mexico brought the delegates of the fivo Republics together,-the object being to terminate Uio notorious intermittent strife. Commander Wintorhalter, a United States officer, who has seen service in Central American waters, declares that flic inhabitants "arc not capable of. self-government." He comments: —" If one could conccivo of such a thing as the five Republics o* Central America in , a confederacy, under the' protection of the United States, there -would be no grander countries on earth than Guatemala, 'Honduras, and Nicaragua, ■ with all their resources developed. But it will never bo under Spanish-.Anierican development. Thbir .Republics are a.misnomer. Their ideas of government are for every man to get into politics for the benefit of hinisolf and his friends, and the.people are,the sufferers. Such countries c'ou'd never become places of investment ■ for American capital. Exploitation of tho resources of the several States has been the 'main objecJ-' of the men who have held, power in, Central America. All the States, with the possible exception, of Costa Rica, have been made .the •victims of official graft, and the progress of all has thus been immeasurably retarded.".- "■'■ -"',:■ . : .