Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay.
Bogotá, September 5, 1903.
Sir: I have the honor to report that since the appointment of the Joint congressional committee to consider the canal matter nothing was done until the committee made its report on the 4th instant. I cabled the substance of that report, and should there seem any prospect of its passing I will send it in full.
As the situation seems at present, it is not likely to pass. The first debate in the Senate will commence on the 7th instant, and the question may be settled during the week.
I think my previous reports have given the Department a very good idea of the situation, but there are some phases of it which I should like to discuss personally when I next visit the United States. This will be in March of next year, I think, if I can get the Department’s permission, and circumstances admit of it.
The impressions which I set forth in my No. 6 of April 15, 1903, that there would be an attempt to secure greater concessions from the United States before a canal treaty would be ratified, are now confirmed. It is quite probable that the Government originally intended that a treaty of some sort should be passed, but apparently not the one under consideration in its entirety.
If in the earlier days of Congress, when the Government had a majority in the Senate, the United States or the canal company could [Page 192] have been induced to add $10,000,000 or $15,000,000 to the recompense to be received by Colombia, I believe the treaty would have been ratified; but lately the tide of opposition has set in so strongly that it has seemed beyond control.
The public discussion which the Government invited has not only overwhelmed the treaty, but has been immensely disastrous to the Government itself. It has not been a discussion in fact, but a rivalry among the newspapers as to which could produce the most violent and bitter attacks upon the whole negotiation. The only articles which have appeared in defense of the treaty were written by Mr. J. T. Ford and Mr. Enrique Cortez. These were answered by personal attacks upon the writers. Mr. Ford was accused of desiring the passage of the treaty in order to secure the payment of the claims of his companies.
I must give Mr. Ford the credit of working for the treaty to the utmost of his ability during the three months that he remained at this capital.
Some of the newspapers are now urging that by threats and intimidation a powerful nation has been trying to coerce the acceptance of an unconstitutional and unsatisfactory treaty upon a weak one, but that through the loyalty of its legislators Colombia has emerged from the ordeal with unstained honor.
With respect to the assurances from certain quarters that the next Congress would be made up so that the canal treaty may be ratified, I believe that this must be taken with due allowance. That any one in authority here has any intention of securing the ratification of the treaty in its present form I can not believe. They will insist upon more money and other modifications.
It is now understood that the vice-president will close this Congress on the 20th instant, so that little consideration can be given to the important questions before it. I believe a law concerning foreign claims will be passed. It is said that in this the Government will distinctly refuse to recognize its responsibility for damages occasioned by the revolutionists.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,