File No. 711.21/292.
The Colombian Minister to the Secretary of State.
Washington , July 22, 1914 .
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to the courteous note of your excellency, dated the 19th ultimo [instant], in which you draw my attention to the text of paragraph 5 of Article II of the Treaty between Colombia and the United States.
In your excellency’s opinion the wording of said text might leave room for interpretation in the sense that the Panama Railway is to be at all times bound to keep its track open and to be provided with the rolling-stock necessary for the special purpose of carrying the commodities named in the said paragraph 5. And your excellency adds that, in order to avoid later difficulties and to prevent the delay attending any amendment of the text of the treaty, it would be well for my Government to declare its concurrence in the interpretation set forth in your excellency’s note which I am now answering.
After consultation on the subject, my Government directs me to make the following declaration in its name to your excellency:
In stipulating paragraph 5 of Article II of the Treaty, the intention of the Colombian negotiators was that coal, salt and petroleum produced in Colombia should pay one half of the freight charged on the same commodities produced in North America for transportation by the railway. In consequence it is not to be supposed [Page 168] that the said intention was to place upon the United States the obligation always to maintain the railway exclusively for the transportation of the said Colombian commodities. This is the interpretation which the Government of Colombia puts on the above-stated stipulation.
I avail [etc.]