File No. 711.21/199.
The Secretary of State to the American Chargê d’Affairs.
Washington, December 19, 1913—6 p.m.
You may present the following as a proposition for settlement of all disputes and controversies between the United States and Colombia.
The United States is willing to make the following treaty:
Article I. The Government of the United States of America, wishing to put at rest all controversies and differences with the Republic of Colombia arising out of the events from which the present situation on the Isthmus of Panama resulted, expresses, in its own name and in the name of the people of the United States, sincere regret that anything should have occurred to interrupt or to mar the relations of cordial friendship that had so long subsisted between the two nations.
The Government of the Republic of Colombia, in its own name and in the name of the Colombian people, accepts this declaration in the full assurance that every obstacle to the restoration of complete harmony between the two countries will thus disappear.
Article II. The United States grants to Colombia the following rights in respect to the interoceanic canal and the Panama Railway:
- 1.
- The Republic of Colombia shall be at liberty at all times to transport through the interoceanic canal its troops, materials of war and ships of war, even in case of war between Colombia and another country, without paying any charges to the United States.
- 2.
- The products of the soil and industry of Colombia passing through the canal, as well as the Colombian mails, shall be exempt from any charges or duties other than such as may be payable on the products or mails of the United States. The products of the soil and industry of Colombia, such as cattle and provisions, shall be admitted to entry in the Canal Zone without paying other duties than those paid upon similar products of the United States.
- 3.
- Colombian citizens crossing the Canal Zone shall, upon production of proper proof of their nationality, be exempt from every toll, tax, or duty to which citizens of the United States are not subject.
- 4.
- During the construction of the interoceanic canal and afterwards, whenever traffic by the canal is interrupted, the troops, materials of war, products [Page 329] and mails of the Republic of Colombia, as above mentioned, shall, even in case of war between Colombia and another country, be transported on the railway between Ancón and Cristóbal or on any other railway substituted therefor, paying only the same charges and duties as are imposed upon the troops, materials of war, products and mails of the United States. The officers, agents and employees of the Government of Colombia shall, upon production of proper proof of their official character or their employment, also be entitled to passage on the said railway on the same terms as officers, agents and employees of the Government of the United States. The provisions of this paragraph shall not, however, apply in case of war between Colombia and Panama.
- 5.
- Coal and sea-salt, being the products of Colombia, passing from the Atlantic coast of Colombia to any Colombian port on the Pacific coast and vice versa, shall be transported over the aforesaid railway free of any charge except the actual cost of handling and transportation, which shall not in any case exceed one-half of the ordinary freight charges levied upon products of the United States passing over the railway and in transit from one port to another of the United States.
Article III. The United States of America agrees to pay to the Republic of Colombia, within six months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, the sum of Twenty Million Dollars, gold, United States money.
Article IV. The independence of the Republic of Panama being acknowledged as an accomplished fact, it is agreed that the boundary between the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Panama shall be based upon the Colombian law of June 9, 1855, and the line shall accordingly run from Cape Tiburón to the headwaters of the Rio de la Miel and following the mountain chain by the ridge of Gandi to the Sierra de Chugargun and that of Mali going down by the ridges of Nique to the heights of Aspave, and from thence to a point on the Pacific half way between Cocalito and Ardita.
It is not necessary to send formal introduction and conclusion. You will notice that the boundary is approximately that of 1855, but more clearly defined for the sake of certainty.
Note.—The draft treaty forwarded by the Department to the American Chargé d’Affaires in its telegram of December 19 was presented to the Foreign Office on December 28, 1913. (File No. 711.21/222.)