Mr. Hart to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States of America,
Bogotá, February 3, 1899.
No. 170.]
Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith copy
of a recent note passed to the Colombian foreign office and translation
of the reply thereto of the Colombian minister of foreign affairs.
The Department will observe that there has been other correspondence, but
since the matter is terminated I have thought it unnecessary to forward
more than the two notes herein inclosed. The Colombian foreign office
put in a long protest based on the arguments with which
[Page 240]
the Department is already familiar. To
these arguments I did not think it necessary to reply, as in an
interview with the minister of foreign affairs we had already settled
the matter, in the terms set forth in the inclosed correspondence, of
which settlement I promptly advised the Department by cable. If the
Department so desire the correspondence not copied and not translated
will be forward promptly on its suggestion to this effect.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Hart to Mr.
Marquez.
Legation of the United States of America,
Bogotá, January 25, 1899.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your excellency’s polite note of January 25, 1899, in
which I am advised that your excellency’s Government accepts the
offer of my Government to receive in full satisfaction of the Panama
Star and Herald claim the sum of $30,000 United States gold.
According to my understanding of the arrangement agreed upon between
your excellency and myself, in the recent interview which I had the
honor to have with your excellency on the subject, the sum above
named is to be paid as follows, in drafts on New York at sixty days
from sight: one draft for $10,000 on February 10, 1899; one draft
for $10,000 on April 10, 1899; and one draft for $10,000 on June 10,
1899. I shall be glad if your excellency will kindly confirm this
understanding.
I observe that in the note to which I now have the honor to reply
your excellency embraces the opportunity to make a new protest
against this claim. I observe also that the new protest is sought to
be supported by arguments which have heretofore been advanced by
your excellency’s Government in support of its contention and which
have been replied to at length on the part of my Government. Since
the basis of settlement has been reached and the terms of payment
agreed upon, I do not think it necessary to present again the
arguments by which my Government has demonstrated the wrong and
injustice of the order suspending the publication of the Panama Star
and Herald, and sustained the justice of the claim for damages
resulting from that arbitrary and unjustifiable act.
I embrace this opportunity to renew, etc.,
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Marquez to
Mr. Hart.
[Translation.]
Bogota, January 30,
1899.
Sir: On the 21st instant I addressed to the
minister of the treasury the following communication:
I have the honor to inform your excellency that, in accord
with the determination of the council of ministers on the
19th instant, it has been resolved to proceed with the
definitive arrangement of the claim which the Government of
the United States
[Page 241]
has been sustaining in favor of the old Panama Star and
Herald Company for the suspension of that newspaper, ordered
by the civil and military governor of Panama in the year
1886.
The said arrangement is perfected and the claim terminated
according to the Republic’s acceptation of the offer which
the said Government has presented through its diplomatic
representative in this capital, which is that the amount of
the said claim, which was originally fixed in $91,000, is
reduced to $30,000, which, according to the agreement with
the minister of the United States, will be paid to him in
drafts at sixty days’ sight, as follows:
| The 10th day of February next |
$10,000 |
| The 10th day of April of this year an equal
sum |
10,000 |
| The 10th day of June of the same |
10,000 |
|
$30,000 |
Begging that your excellency may be good enough to make the
necessary arrangements to the end that these payments of
which this communication treats maybe made in the form as I
have described, etc.
The preceding communication being in entire accord with the oral
agreement which I had occasion to bring to a conclusion with your
excellency to terminate the claim in question, and having set forth
in my former dispatch addressed to your excellency the proper
protest against that demand, I refer to your excellency’s note of
the 28th instant, in which you ask for the ratification of the said
agreement.
I offer to your excellency the assurance, etc.,
