Office of the Historian

File No. 2941/48.

The Secretary of State to Minister Squiers.

[Telegram—Paraphrase.]
Department of State,
Washington, December 31, 1908.

Mr. Root acknowledges legation’s telegram of December 24, and says that while the Costa Rican special envoy thinks it is advisable to submit the whole boundary question to a decision which will be clearer and in more definite terms than the Loubet award, suggests, in deference to Panama, that following points be submitted to new arbitration:

1.
Whether the Loubet award, according to principles of international law; is free from defects that impair its legal force.
2.
If the award is not considered thus defective, to determine its meaning and through what points the frontier line shall be drawn.