821.6363 Barco/90: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Colombia (Piles)

18. Department’s 17, April 5, 7 p.m. The Department considers it highly important that the concession should be restored and the decree of forfeiture withdrawn as an act of justice and fair dealing before any changes in the terms of the concession are agreed upon, and that any adjustments which may be made should be recognized as applying to a concession to which the right and title of the companies is not questioned. For the Colombian Government to restore the concession as compensation for changes in the terms thereof would place the companies in the position of tacitly recognizing the validity of the decree of forfeiture in return for a new concession and paying a price for the restoration of property wrongfully withheld from them. This would set a very unfortunate precedent in the case of other concessions which the Colombian Government might desire to revise in the future.

Kellogg