File No. 718.1915/229.

The Minister of Costa Rica to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

Mr. Secretary of State: I have great pleasure in confirming to your excellency the brief explanation I had the honor to offer to you respecting the boundary dispute between Costa Rica and Panama, happily and finally settled by the unappealable award of the Chief Justice of the United States.

I first reiterate the expressions of cordial gratitude of my Government for the friendly intervention of the Department of State in the conclusion of the Treaty of March 17, 1910, which placed in the able hands of that high functionary the final decision that was to constitute, under the terms of that instrument, a perfect and binding treaty between the high contracting parties, thus removing the one cause of difference between the two neighboring nations made sisters by blood, tongue and history.

May I be permitted next to assure your excellency that this last, this ending forever a state of affairs that might at any moment turn into a cause of controversy, was the thing that brought the deepest satisfaction to the officials and leading minds of our country. To this was added the admiration aroused by the very eminent judge who in a comparatively short time managed to master all the details of so vast a question. Hence, Mr. Secretary, the surprise caused by the note of the Panaman Government taking exception to the award of the Chief Justice of the United States, forgetting at one and the same time both the authority and integrity of the judge [Page 1025] and the binding promise to accept the award, whatever it might be, resulting from article 7 of the treaty herein referred to.

In response to the interest in the conclusion of that treaty evidenced by the Department of State, I took the liberty of putting your excellency in possession, first, of the Panaman note, and, soon thereafter, of Costa Rica’s answer. The oral explanations to which your excellency was pleased to lend so attentive an ear were in response to the interest your excellency shows in the perfect mastery of the boundary question, which interest I highly appreciate and for which I extend to your excellency my most heartfelt thanks in behalf of my Government.

And I shall be glad to furnish to your excellency all the data you may need about that very question which, though Costa Rica takes it to be res judicata, might nevertheless bring about some further development.

I avail [etc.]

R. Brenes Mesen
.