File No. 711.2.1/149.
I also beg to enclose copings from local newspapers commenting upon the
informal suggestions, submitted to the consideration of this
Government.
The Department will note that while several newspapers deliberately
misunderstand or mistake the bases offered by me, all endorse the action
of the Government in refusing to accept any proposals which would affect
the sovereignty of Colombia over any part of her territory.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
Minutes of the conference between the Minister for
Foreign Affairs and the American Minister.
On February 15, 1913, there took place a conference at the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs between Dr. Francisco José Urrutia, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Leopoldo Montejo, Secretary ad hoc, on the
one hand, and Mr. James T. Du Bois, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of the United States, and the Secretary of the
Legation, Mr. Leland Harrison.
Mr. Du Bois expressed his desire that the conference should be
considered informal, to which Dr. Urrutia replied that as Mr. Du
Bois so desired it should be as he requested but that he wished to
point out that this informal character
[Page 295]
would detract somewhat from the importance of
Mr. Du Bois’ propositions and from this conference.
Thereupon the American Minister reviewed the course of the present
conversations looking to an arrangement acceptable to Colombia for
the settlement of the differences pending between the two
countries.
Mr. Du Bois concluded by saying that he had received a memorandum
which Mr. Carreho had sent him by the Secretary ad hoc, Mr. Montejo,
in which the Minister in charge of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
informed him, much to his regret, that the Government of Colombia
did not consider acceptable the propositions submitted by the
American Minister in the name of his Government.
Mr. Du Bois asked Mr. Urrutia if he had read his last memorandum, to
which the Minister for Foreign Affairs replied in the affirmative,
whereupon the American Minister asked Mr. Urrutia his opinion, and
the latter replied that he was in complete accord with his
predecessor and that this was also the opinion of the President of
the Republic. Moreover Mr. Urrutia remarked that the acceptance of
such bases as those suggested by Mr. Du Bois would result in an
intense agitation throughout the people of Colombia.
The American Minister asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs to state
the wishes of the Colombian Government in the matter, to which Mr.
Urrutia replied that the desire of Colombia was to submit the
questions pending between Colombia and the United States to
arbitration and that the last note on this subject addressed by Mr.
Ospina, the Colombian Minister at Washington, to the Department of
State on November 25, 1911, was conceived in this sense.1 To this note Mr. Urrutia again
called the attention of Mr. Du Bois. Notwithstanding this, however,
if the Government of the United States was disposed to give Colombia
satisfactory reparation for what had taken place, Colombia had no
objection to consider it and was prepared to enter into some direct
arrangement which would satisfy the national aspirations evinced on
more than one occasion. Mr. Du Bois replied that this was exactly
the purpose of his Government in sending him back to Colombia and
with this in view he had presented the memorandum which contained
the proposal. Mr. Urrutia answered as he had before, that is to say
that the Government of Colombia was not in a position to consider
the proposal, because it did not think that it contained the just
reparation which Colombia should receive for the immense damage
suffered by reason of the separation of Panamá, neither did it
consider that this proposal, if formulated into an agreement, would
be approved by the Colombian Congress.
Mr. Du Bois pointed out that the Government of the United States
could not submit to arbitration the question of the separation of
Panamá, considered in its political aspect, although it was prepared
to arbitrate the material side of the question, as the people of the
United Sates would never agree to submit its political acts to
arbitration, which had never been done so far by any country in the
world. Mr. Urrutia replied that at the bottom of the differences
between Colombia and the United States was the question of the
violation of a public treaty: that of 1846; that it was precisely to
questions regarding the application and interpretation of treaties
to which the Hague Convention referred relative to the pacific
settlement of international questions; that the actual President of
the United States had proposed and taken the initiative in the sense
that arbitration should be extended even to include questions
concerning national honor and territory; that the present
controversy between England and the United States, for which
arbitration was demanded by many illustrious North American jurists,
referred precisely to the interpretation of a clause of the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. Mr. Du Bois carefully pointed out to his
excellency the Minister that this example was precisely to the
point, in that the arbitration proposed referred to a purely
material claim, i. e. as to the amount of tolls to be paid by
certain shipping passing through the Canal, and in no way comprised
the arbitration of any political act whatsoever. Mr. Urrutia stated
that he respected the opinion of Mr. Du Bois in this regard but that
he could not agree with him; that the discussion of the application
or violation of a public treaty, such as the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty,
fundamentally involved always a question of international policy,
and he remarked in conclusion that if the American Minister found
obstacles in the sentiments of the American people to submitting to
arbitration the political questions relative to the separation of
Panamá, he, as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Colombia, could state
that the public sentiment of the Colombian people would always
refuse any arrangement whatsoever
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which, without being a just reparation to
Colombia, might involve a diminution of sovereignty, a privilege or
an unacceptable concession over any part of the national territory,
such as were contained in Mr. Du Bois’ proposals relative to the
islands of San Andrés and Providencia and the Atrato canal.
Mr. Dubois said that in his opinion the proposition in its amended
form did not contain any diminution of sovereignty. Mr. Urrutia
replied that he abstained at the present time from deep discussion
of this point and that he contented himself with assuring Mr. Du
Bois that the Government considered any such stipulation as
prejudicial to the national welfare (“inconveniente para los
intereses nacionales”).
Thereupon Mr. Du Bois asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether
he thought that if the United States should offer $10,000,000
without asking any privilege on the islands or the option to build
the Atrato canal but bearing in the other propositions, would the
Colombian Government accept this offer. The Minister for Foreign
Affairs answered, No; that the proposal in its entirety was refused
by the Government, as not being of such a nature as could be
accepted by Colombia.
Mr. Du Bois expressed his deep regret that the Government of Colombia
refused to enter into negotiations on the proposed bases, and that
it should insist upon an impossible arbitration. In his opinion the
Government of Colombia was losing a propitious opportunity to settle
the pending questions with the United States, an arrangement which
he ventured to believe, as a good friend of Colombia to be most
necessary before the opening of the Panamá Canal. The American
Minister also regretted that the Government of Colombia did not see
its way clear to completing an arrangement on the basis suggested
before the 4th of March next, an arrangement which might be amended
further to the advantage of Colombia after that date, but which if
now refused by Colombia might never again be proposed by the United
States in so favorable a form.
Mr. Du Bois endeavored to obtain an expression of opinion from his
excellency the Minister as to the bases which might be acceptable to
Colombia. Dr. Urrutia replied that his Government, as he had already
stated, demanded the arbitration of the whole Panamá question, or a
direct proposition from the United States to compensate Colombia for
all of the moral and material damages sustained by her because of
the separation of Panamá. The American Minister inquired if that
were the last word of Colombia, to which the Minister for Foreign
Affairs answered, Yes.
Mr. Urrutia assured Mr. Du Bois of his deep regret that he was unable
to enter upon any negotiations on these bases, and that he regretted
it all the more as Mr. Du Bois was held in the highest estimation by
the Government of Colombia.
The American Minister asked Mr. Urrutia if he thought that there was
any objection to the publication by the press of the propositions
suggested by him in the name of his Government, to which the latter
replied that he would consult with the President of the Republic,
but in the event of the proposal being published it would be
necessary to make public the minutes of this conference.
Mr. Du Bois inquired of Mr. Urrutia if he considered that the refusal
to accept the proposal terminated the negotiations initiated by him.
Mr. Urrutia answered, Yes.
Mr. Du Bois thereupon informed the Minister that he withdrew his
proposal from further discussion, and notified the Government of
Colombia to consider them as never having been made.
