[Inclosure
1.—Translation.]
Dr. Rico to Mr.
Beaupré.
Ministry for Foreign Relations,
Bogotá, August 8, 1903.
Mr. Minister: One of your attentive
communications which your excellency had the pleasure to address to
me on the 5th of the present month, relative to the business of the
Interoceanic Canal of Panama, contained the part which I take the
liberty to quote as follows:
“I may say that the antecedent circumstances of the whole negotiation
of the canal treaty, from official information in the hands of my
Government, are of such a nature as to fully warrant the United
States in considering any modification of the terms of that treaty
as practically a breach of faith on the part of the Government of
Colombia, such as may involve the very greatest complications in the
friendly relations which have hitherto existed between the two
countries.”
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Wishing to give to your excellency as soon as possible the required
answer to the two notes to which I refer in the present, I will
appreciate it if you will inform me that if among the circumstances
alluded to in the paragraph, a version of which I have transcribed,
there exist any others not mentioned in the notes which your
excellency has seen fit to address to me on this subject.
With this motive I renew to your excellency the assurance of my
highest consideration.
(Signed)
Luis Carlos
Rico.
His Excellency A. M. Beaupré,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of the United States.
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Beaupré to
Doctor Pico.
Legation of the United States,
Bogotá, August 8, 1903.
His Excellency Dr. Luis Carlos
Rico,
Minister for Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of Colombia.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
receipt of your excellency’s courteous note of to-day, quoting a
paragraph of my note of the 5th instant, and asking if the statement
therein contained is based upon information not mentioned in my
previous notes.
In reply I have the honor to inform your excellency that the
antecedent circumstances to which I made reference are fully
outlined in my previous notes, and particularly in the one of June
10, 1903.
If your excellency will permit me a few words more on this subject I
would like to refer to the extraordinary efforts made by my
Government to keep faith with Colombia after an agreement had been
reached between the executive Governments of the two nations.
As your excellency is aware, when the canal convention was presented
to the Senate of the United States it encountered the most violent
opposition. Not only were strenuous efforts made to defeat the
treaty in its entirety, but many amendments of varying degrees of
importance were presented and urged. During all that period the
friends of the Government were steadfast in their determination to
uphold the action of the Executive and to preserve intact the
agreement made with Colombia. It was a momentous struggle, and the
final and close victory was secured in the end only by the most
stupendous efforts on the part of the Administration, imbued as they
were with the idea that such a compact, made after mature and
careful consideration by the executive departments of the two
Governments, must be ratified as it stood.
In view of the foregoing, it is absolutely believed by my Government,
that any modification, as such, to the pending treaty could not be
safely submitted to the present Senate.
The intense feeling over large sections of the United States in favor
of the Nicaragua route on the one hand and interests on the other
hand hostile to any canal at all, and especially the Panama route,
are circumstances that, I fear, your excellency’s Government and the
people of Colombia have not weighed sufficiently to attach to them
the importance they deserve.
While my previous notes may have expressed an almost exaggerated
desire to impress upon your excellency the dangers of delay or
modification of any kind, they were inspired by a full knowledge of
conditions in my own country, which I feared would not be fully
appreciated in Colombia.
The condition which appears to me to be absolute, at least, is that
the proposed treaty should be ratified as it is, in good faith with
my Government, or the opportunity will be lost for any later
negotiations of any kind whatever.
In my own behalf, I most earnestly desire to assure your excellency
that, aside from fulfilling the instructions of my Government, I
have the deepest personal concern in the honor and glory of the
country to which I am accredited, and in which I have been extended
so much kindness and consideration. Every conviction of my mind
leads me to the belief that enormous aggrandizement must accrue to
Colombia if an interoceanic canal be constructed through her
territory, while the desire to bring the two countries into closer
and lasting friendship is ever present. Feeling
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thus deeply every effort I may have
made, or shall make to this end, has or will have as its incentive
the ultimate good not only of the country which I represent but of
that in which I have the privilege and pleasure of residing.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew, etc.
