710.1012 Washington/32
The Minister in Panama ( South ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 19.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that, pursuant to the Department’s instruction No. 631 of April 14, 1928,74 I pointed out to the Panaman Minister of Foreign Affairs in conversation yesterday the interest felt by my Government in having the Gondra treaty become effective as to all countries members of the Pan American Union before the proposed conference of conciliation and arbitration met at Washington at the end of this year. The Foreign Minister replied that this would be done, so far as Panama was concerned, and added that he had already mailed his Government’s ratification of the treaty to Santiago for deposit with the Government of Chile.
With regard to the attitude of the Panaman Government toward arbitration and conciliation, I believe that there is no doubt whatever of Panama’s readiness to adhere to the proposed convention [Page 626] on these subjects. Panama is a small nation. One of her international boundaries is in dispute and the other has not been delimited. Her boundary question with Costa Rica is of a serious and involved character.76 In my opinion, Panama would not only consent to submit this question to arbitration, but would also welcome an opportunity of becoming a party to such a convention for the purpose of submitting thereunder, if possible, another question which has been agitated by the present administration, namely, the sovereignty of the Panama Canal.
I have [etc.]
- See footnote 72, p. 623.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1926, vol. i, pp. 539 ff.↩