File No. 711.21/537.

The Minister of Colombia to the Secretary of State.

My dear Mr. Secretary: As you are doubtless aware, I have purposely refrained from intruding the grievances of Colombia upon you in all these months of stress and worry during which you have handled the most delicate international situations in a manner worthy of the highest traditions of diplomacy. But the time has [Page 263] come when my Government will no longer permit me to maintain an attitude of expectancy, and I have sent you a brief memorandum from my Government emphasizing the importance which the Republic of Colombia attaches to the prompt ratification of the Treaty of the 6th of April, 1914. Should you deem it expedient, my Government has no objection to its immediate publication.

I need not say, my dear Mr. Secretary, how deeply I trust that the Senate of the United. States will approve the treaty entered into at the instance of the United States and already approved by the Colombian Congress.

Twelve years have passed since Panama was taken from Colombia, and for more than three years I have laboured here to arrive at a solution which four of my predecessors had sought in vain. I am unaffectedly anxious over the outcome, more especially as I foresee that in case the treaty fails to receive the approbation of the American Senate, and as a preliminary step to what action my Government may decide upon, the Republic of Colombia will be obliged to withdraw from the Pan American Union as it would no longer be compatible with our national honor to retain membership in a corporation ostensibly created to promote harmony among all the nations of America and capable of existence only on the basis of justice and fair dealing.

We are at a point in history where, more than ever before, the unification of all the interests of our continent is a matter of vital concern to the great Republic of the North whose statesmen—among whom you occupy so distinguished a position by virtue of your high moral and intellectual attainments—cannot fail to see that in union lies the future safety of the New World.

I take this opportunity [etc.]

Julio Betangourt.