718.1915/509
The Secretary of State to the Panaman Minister of Foreign Affairs on Special Mission ( Garay )
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of July 1, referring to the conversation which I had with Your Excellency on June 30.
[Page 215]In view of the evident misapprehension by Your Excellency of the statements which I made in the course of that interview, I feel that it is desirable without delay to set forth the following facts in reply to the inquiry contained in Your Excellency’s note under acknowledgement.
It is true that the Government of the United States has no desire to prevent any direct settlement that may be reached between Costa Rica and Panama with respect to the boundary dispute between those two Republics. It is, however, not accurate to say that this Government has no interest in the solution, as it is manifest, from what has already taken place that this Government is deeply interested, in view of its special relation to the Government of Panama, that a peaceable solution should be arrived at. While it is quite agreeable to this Government to have a disposition of the dispute made directly between the Governments of Costa Rica and Panama, I pointed out to Your Excellency definitely that this Government would not make representations to the Government of Costa Rica to the effect that that Government should abate the demands which she was entitled to make of the Government of Panama under the Award of the Chief Justice of the United States. It was stated distinctly that this Government had no reason to expect that, in the absence of representations by the United States to Costa Rica, to the effect that that Government should abate its demands under the Award of Chief Justice White, the Government of Costa Rica would be content with anything less than that to which she was entitled under that Award. While, therefore, this Government recognized, of course, the theoretical possibility of an adjustment reached directly between the two Governments concerned, and the acceptability of any adjustment that might thus be made, it was distinctly stated that it did not appear to be within the range of reasonable expectation that any adjustment was possible except upon the basis of the fulfillment of the terms of the White Award.
It was in this sense, and in this sense alone, that any reference was made to an extension of the period referred to in the note communicated by the American Minister in Panama to the Government of Panama on May 2, last,8 to wit, that if the Government of Panama saw fit, as this Government hoped it might see fit, to arrange with the Government of Costa Rica promptly for a delimitation of the boundary between the two Republics in accordance with the White Award on the north and the Loubet Award on the south, it would be agreeable to the Government of the United States to grant a suitable extension of time to permit this to be done.
[Page 216]It is a misapprehension to suppose that any reference was made to an extension of time with the idea that the Governments of Costa Rica and Panama would be able to reach an adjustment on a basis different from that of the White Award, as this Government has no reason to suppose that any such an adjustment is possible and there would seem to be no reason for permitting an extension of time for such a purpose. The statement which I made to Your Excellency was simply that if this Government was advised that the Government of Panama would take up with the Government of Costa Rica the appointment of a Commission for the laying out of a boundary in accordance with the terms of the White Award on the north, for the demarcation of the boundary on the south as determined by the Loubet Award, and for the orderly transfer of jurisdiction over the territory lying to the north of the latter boundary, and that these negotiations were in progress, whatever time was reasonable for that purpose would very gladly be accorded by this Government, so that it might be spared the necessity of taking any further action in the matter.
With the hope that the statements which I have set forth above may remove the very evident misapprehension which exists in Your Excellency’s mind as to the conversation held between us in our last interview, I avail myself [etc.]