File No. 711.21/357
The Colombian Minister to the Secretary of State
Washington , March 7, 1917 .
Sir: Convinced that at this momentous and solemn hour in the history of humanity the supreme and clear duty of all the countries of America is to secure the benefits of collective action for the defense of their noble ideals of liberty within justice and the economic interests of the continent, my Government has endeavored to settle old boundary litigations with neighboring Republics in the regions of the Orinoco and Amazonas, accomplishing to that end an amicable settlement, in which, as I have already stated to your excellency, Colombia has sacrificed valuable portions of her territory for the sake of peace and concord.
Animated thusly, and for the selfsame aim of fostering harmony and solidarity, my Government, fully alive to the urgency of unifying continental interests, hopes to-day for the ratification of the pact which, signed in Bogotá on April 6 of the year 1914, is to renew the old-standing friendship between Colombia and the United States.
Admittedly the pact in itself comprises an act of justice and of international value. That has been acknowledged by eminent men in this country and in Latin America.
Furthermore, filed in the archives of the Legation under my charge, there are numerous letters that have been received from leading capitalists and business men in such centers of progress as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and many other cities. In all of these letters is echoed a lively interest in favor of the approval of the treaty [Page 295] between Colombia and the United States, a treaty which, submitted by the Executive branch of this Government to the approval of the Senate, has lain in the councils of this body since 1914.
It is impossible to allow the pending question between our two countries go on any longer without receiving a satisfactory solution. And all the more so when that solution is pressingly urged by the demands of justice, by potent reasons of international wisdom and by valuable interests of the American people.
With pleasure I avail myself [etc.]