No. 71.
Mr. King to
Mr. Bayard.
Bogota, June 26, 1886. (Received July 21.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 30 to Mr. Jacob, dated May 13, 1886, repeating your telegram of May 11 in regard to suspension of Star and Herald.
[Page 176]I have also the honor to acknowledge your No. 31 of May 15, 1886, addressed to Mr. Jacob, in which you review the action of General Santo Domingo Vila in suspending the Star and Herald, and direct your dispatch to be read to the Colombian secretary of foreign relations, and in certain events to furnish him with copy of same In compliance with your directions I have read your dispatch to Mr. Secretary Restrepo, and at his request have provided him with a copy. After listening to your dispatch with evident concern he submitted to me the telegraphic correspondence that had grown out of the controversy between his Government and General Vila, and requested me to mention it in my communication to you. In regard to the alleged authority from the “executive national power at Bogota,” referred to in the order of suspension, the secretary explained that President Nuñez on the 6th of March, 1886, telegraphed to General Vila to warn the Star and Herald to desist from censure, and if it persisted to suppress it; that on April 2d following, he, the secretary, hearing of the suspension, telegraphed to General Vila expostulating with him upon the severity of the sentence and requesting, on account of the good will felt toward the United States, that he would reduce the term of suspension from sixty to twenty days; that on April 5th following General Vila replied that he would commit no act to disturb the friendly relations existing between the two Governments; that feeling reassured by this pacific message, the secretary dismissed the subject from his mind until May 17th following, when being informed of General Vila’s unrelenting rigor, he telegraphed the censure of his Government and directed him peremptorily to re-establish the Star and Herald; that General Vila thereupon requested the Government here to nominate his successor; that in reply to General Vila the President and secretary of interior, on the 24th May, 1886, commanded General Vila to re-establish the Star and Herald, or in default thereof to surrender his office into the hands of General Rengifo; that on the day following General Vila telegraphed the President that the full term of the Star and Herald’s suspension had just expired, and that he therewith tendered his resignation as civil and military governor; and that the Government accepted the resignation so tendered and appointed General Posada to fill the vacancy. * * *
I have, &c.,