No. 274.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Maury.
Washington, February 2, 1888.
Sir: Your dispatches Nos. 67, 70, 72, and 73, dated respectively the 19th, 25th, 26th, and 29th of December last, have been received. They relate to your execution of my instruction numbered 44, of November 14, 1887, touching open telegraphic communication across the Isthmus of Panama, which had theretofore been the subject of correspondence, and you therein report the decision of the Colombian Government that the telegraph wire belonging to the Panama Railroad Company is a private wire, and not an exclusive monopoly of telegraphic transmission across the territory of the Isthmus. I observe also the announced purpose of the Colombian Government to construct and operate as a public work within the federal district of Panama a line of national telegraph of which the unobstructed use is tendered to the Government of the United States.
This decision and announcement are received with satisfaction. The Government of the United States appreciates the action of the Colombian Government in placing at its disposal a means of untrammelled and secure telegraphic communication over so important a thoroughfare as the Isthmus, and sees therein a renewed indication of the spirit which animates the Government of Colombia in facilitating the observance of the important and intimate obligations which exist between it and the United States in respect of the Isthmian transit.
I am, etc.,