710.1012 Washington/119

The Chargé in Colombia (Matthews) to the Secretary of State

No. 1415

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 1057 of April 14, 1928,17 with reference to the forthcoming Conference of Conciliation and Arbitration and to report thereon as follows:

Mr. Piles18 several times before his departure took up with the Minister for Foreign Affairs the subject matter of the instruction under reference but was unable to obtain any definite information as to the steps which the Colombian Government might take or its probable attitude towards the conference other than the assurance that Colombia would be officially represented thereat.

I took occasion to have a conversation on the subject with the Minister for Foreign Affairs on September 27th and reiterated the hope of the United States Government that the Government of Colombia will see its way to ratify the Gondra treaty and deposit [Page 643] ratification thereof at Santiago, Chile, before the conference. Dr. Uribe told me that he considered it highly important for Colombia to ratify the aforesaid treaty and intended to present it to Congress in the coming week. He said that he had presented it last year but could arouse little interest therein and that it consequently died in committee. He feels, however, that the chances of obtaining its ratification in the present Congress are good. Up to the present, he informed me, the Colombian delegates to the conference have not been decided upon nor have any instructions been drawn up.

I have been endeavoring to ascertain informally and discreetly the views of the Colombian Government on the general question of arbitration and conciliation and of the probable nature of its instructions to its delegates. My efforts have met with but little success and the one definite impression I have gained is that there is at present little interest in the forthcoming conference and little faith in conventions on arbitration and conciliation. …

I have [etc.]

H. Freeman Matthews
  1. See footnote 72, p. 623.
  2. Samuel H. Piles, retiring American Minister in Colombia.