File No. 718.1915/232.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Minister Hale.
No. 221 B.]
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
San José,
December 12, 1914.
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to
receive the valuable communication of the 20th [30th] of last month,
in which your excellency is pleased to inform me that there has been
brought to the knowledge of your Government the possibility of
collision between Costa Rica and Panama over the boundary dispute
which was recently the subject of arbitration between the two
countries; and that therefore your excellency has received
instructions to offer your good offices to my Government in order
that any action likely to provoke hostilities may be avoided until
it is possible to arrive at an amicable settlement of the existing
controversies.
Your excellency is pleased to add that similar instructions have been
sent to his excellency the Minister of the United States in Panama,
as your excellency’s Government is desirous of doing everything in
its power toward the amicable settlement of a dispute which has long
been a menace to the preservation of good relations between the two
contiguous countries.
Duly authorized by the President of the Republic I have the
satisfaction of replying to your excellency’s aforesaid
communication as follows:
The event of hostilities between my Government and the Government of
the Republic of Panama is, I can assure your excellency, a danger in
the highest degree remote, inasmuch as both Governments have
exchanged mutual, ample and effective assurances that the unexpected
discussion provoked on the side of Panama, subsequent to the handing
down of the final decision delivered by the Honorable Chief Justice
of the United States in the arbitral boundary suit of the two
countries—a decision which put an end to the controversy under
debate for so many years—shall not be determined except by measures
of a peaceful nature consistent with the close and sincere
friendship which happily binds both countries and their
Governments.
Your excellency will please find inclosed a copy of the
correspondence exchanged in this connection between the two
cabinets9a;
and I am glad to say to your excellency that my Government has no
desire to depart in the slightest degree from that line of conduct,
and that it entertains the firm conviction that like sentiments
obtain in Panama.
By the same correspondence to which I have just referred your
excellency will be convinced that the ancient boundary question, so
long discussed between Costa Rica and Panama, was settled on the
12th of September last by virtue of the judgment which I have
previously mentioned, of which I have the pleasure to inclose a
copy.9a
Such is the point of view which, in accordance with the sanctity of
pledges given, prevails throughout Costa Rica; and from that point
of view my Government considers that it would not be possible for it
to deviate in any way.
Unfortunately, Panama, departing from the purely speculative ground,
to which, from the tenor of its notes, it would appear to desire to
have the discussion confined, has lately committed acts of veritable
aggression against the integrity of this Republic, such as placing
administrative authorities at different points on the coast situated
to the north of Punta Burica, a region which, as your excellency is
well aware, belongs clearly and
unquestionably to Costa Rica since the conclusion of the
Anderson-Porras Convention signed at Washington March 17, 1910.
The profound surprise which the news of such an aggression produced
in the mind of my Government prevented it from adopting at the
outset the repulsory measures which the case demanded, inasmuch as
it wished, before taking any step of the slightest nature, to obtain
the information necessary to [Page 1028] convince itself of the certainty of so
unexpected and grave a resolution on the part of Panama.
The generous offer of mediation which your excellency has been
pleased to propose to my Government could not have come, therefore,
at a more opportune moment, and my Government hereby and with
profound and heartfelt gratitude accepts it, with the conviction
that it will suffice to prevent the arising of any serious
difficulty in the carrying out of a judgment resulting from a treaty
which both nations have pledged their honor to observe, and which
possibly would not have been celebrated without the discreet,
impartial and most valuable mediation of the United States.
With the assurance that the legitimate and unquestionable rights of
Costa Rica will meet, on this and on every occasion, with favorable
reception in the mind of your excellency’s enlightened and equitable
Government,
I have [etc.]
