721.2315/325: Telegram
The Ambassador in Peru (Poindexter) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 31—12:45 a.m.]
110. Colombian Minister has just called and states that on account of the repeated specific promises of the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru that the Colombian boundary treaty68 would be promptly submitted to Congress for its consideration and the failure up to this time to comply with these promises has created a critical situation in his country, one of the leading papers with much influence urging the military occupation of the territory in dispute. [Page 332] Curletti, Chairman of the Committee Foreign Relations of the Senate and of the Joint Committee of the Senate and House, promised Lozano69 December 9th that within 10 days he would make his report to the Senate on the treaty. Since then Curletti has taken no steps to comply with his promise and has not submitted his report. The Colombian Minister states that he interviewed Minister for Foreign Affairs today and that the latter told him that the discussion of Tacna-Arica70 would not interfere with the approval of the Colombian boundary treaty and assured Lozano that he would immediately again interview Curletti at length and that positively the treaty would be acted upon by Congress in the early days of January.
However Congress will be in vacation for several days during new year and the extra session will adjourn about January 20th and it is not known that another extra session will be called during the year and on account of the repeated disappointments in this respect Lozano feels that no action will be taken in which case he states there will be no occasion for him to remain longer as Minister in Peru and that he fears a serious rupture in the relations of the two countries.
I have repeatedly recently urged upon both the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs the advisability of the prompt ratification of the treaty and have been assured by both that such action will be taken but I have been informed that since then largely on account of the Tacna-Arica question there has been an unfavorable reaction in Congress towards the boundary treaty.
It is possible that some [paraphrase] inquiry of Velarde71 regarding the status of the treaty might help.
- Treaty of Mar. 24, 1922, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxiv, p. 9; see also Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Peru, Tratados, Convenciones y Acuerdos vigentes entre el Peru y otros Estados (Lima, Imprenta Torres Aguirre, 1936), vol. i, p. 251.↩
- Colombian Minister in Peru.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1926, vol. i, pp. 260 ff.↩
- Hernán Velarde, Peruvian Ambassador at Washington.↩