Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay.
Bogotá, August 5, 1903. (Received 12.)
Referring to my dispatch of April 24, containing your cipher telegram, April 7, I have received a note from minister for foreign affairs [Page 172] asking if “any modification in the treaty itself would be considered in violation of Spooner law, the same as suggestions for canceling concessions of companies had been considered by the Government of the United States.”
I replied July 22 substantially as follows: With the approval of the treaty by the Senate of the United States, the Spooner law, which authorized its making, was fully complied with, so far as the Panama route is concerned. Hence said law went out of active existence with reference to Panama, and can only become a subject of discussion, and then with reference to Nicaragua, in the event of rejection of the treaty by Colombia. This is my personal opinion, which I am unable at present to confirm by cable reference to my Government, but I believe it my duty to inform you that I have no reason to believe my Government will again consider or discuss any modification whatever to the treaty as it stands, which impression I gather from a careful reading and study of the notes already in your possession, for if in case of concessions of the companies my Government would consider their modifications in violation of Spooner law, then with great reason it would seem the treaty itself as the official interpretation of (the law) can not be modified at all without violating that law.
From conversations with prominent Senators I believe the Government does not consider my opinions as final or authoritative. I beg for an emphatic statement from you or instructions under my telegram of July 15. There is much danger that the treaty will be amended.