721.23/838

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)

After Mr. Lozano2 left the Secretary’s office this morning I had a brief talk with him in the corridor of the Department as I had other visitors in my office. I told him that I had just learned that Colombia had replied to the Permanent Commission in Washington and that it had rejected any good offices on the part of the Permanent Commission and had omitted the matter which I considered of some importance and had discussed with him last Friday, namely that Colombia ask the Permanent Commission to ask Peru to get out of Leticia and open the way for it to do so. I said I understood that on the contrary Colombia has now closed the door to any action by the Commission. I told the Minister that while I had not seen the note and did not know its exact terms I regretted this action which would seem to upset completely what we had in mind and make difficult any action on the part of this Government along the lines that we had envisaged. The Minister seemed perturbed by this and said he had sent the note under direct orders from Bogotá.

F[rancis] W[hite]
  1. Fabio Lozano T., Colombian Minister in the United States.