721.23/844
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (White)
The President of Colombia, Señor Olaya Herrera, called me by telephone this morning. He said first of all he wanted to express his sympathy to this Government in the death of ex-President Coolidge and asked me to convey his feelings in the matter to Secretary Stimson. I told him I would do so.
President Olaya then, after New Years greetings and an exchange of civilities, said that he wanted to discuss the question of Leticia. He said that the Brazilian Minister in Bogotá had made a verbal proposal to the Government of Colombia which Colombia had accepted. This proposal was, first, that the occupiers of Leticia should turn over the territory to a delegate of Brazil. Second, Brazil, a short time thereafter, would turn the territory over to Colombia. Third, there would then be conversations in Rio to adjust outstanding difficulties between Colombia and Peru. The President said that this was the proposal which had been made to Colombia and which had been accepted by Colombia. I told President Olaya that I was very glad to hear that this proposal had been accepted and that I had learned yesterday afternoon that the Peruvian Government desired to have the negotiations located in Rio; that as a consequence we had stopped all conversations here with Señor Maúrtua and had told the Brazilian Government we had learned with satisfaction that negotiations would take place in Rio and we earnestly hoped the Brazilian Government would be able to quickly remove all danger of hostilities and that the conversations to take place would bring about a definite and lasting settlement satisfactory to all the countries concerned.
The President said he understood that the Peruvian Minister in Brazil had made a counter suggestion to the Brazilian Government in the sense that Brazil should establish authority in Leticia which [Page 388] would be placed under two flags, Brazilian and Peruvian. If the negotiations in Bio do not succeed, then the Brazilian authorities will withdraw and the territory will be turned back again completely to the Peruvian rebels who are now there. President Olaya said that obviously this proposal is unsatisfactory to Colombia and will not be accepted.
President Olaya said there was one thing which must be clearly understood in this matter and that is that Peru wants Colombia to promise to revise the Treaty of 1922.12 President Olaya said that he does not want to do so. He is not going to make any promise that he can not fulfill and any promise he does make he will fulfill to the letter. If the invaders of Leticia will turn over the territory to Brazil and Brazil in a reasonable time will then turn it back to Colombia, reestablishing Colombia’s authority there, he is ready to open negotiations in Brazil and to do so in a spirit of the greatest friendliness for Peru. He is willing to have a most ample discussion in order to conciliate completely their different points of view and to harmonize any divergences of opinion and interest which may exist. He will go into these negotiations in the most ample spirit of conciliation but he will not do so on the basis of promising in advance to revise the Treaty. He is willing to consider everything that Peru brings up, commercial, economic, and even territorial questions, I understood him to say, but he can not promise in advance a revision of the Treaty. (I can not be sure that he said he was willing to discuss a territorial change because at that time the connection was bad and when Tasked for a repetition I again could not hear distinctly what he said).
President Olaya said that he was having a talk at one o’clock with Mr. Caffery when he would tell him very fully his views and would ask him to communicate them to us at once, but he wanted to have a talk with me and tell me that in view of our long standing friendship and my knowledge of him he felt I would have no difficulty in believing that he was honestly looking for a satisfactory solution and that he would strictly comply with and live up to anything he promised but that he would not make promises which he could not fulfill. I told President Olaya that he need have no concern on that score; that I knew him well enough so that he could be sure I knew that anything he agreed to do he would live up to. I expressed the hope that a peaceful solution would be found to this difficult problem.
I asked President Olaya whether it was his idea that in the conversations to be held in Rio Ecuador should be included.13 I said that I had heard it mentioned that Ecuador would be included and I [Page 389] wanted to ask his views thereon. President Olaya said that he had no objection whatsoever to the inclusion of Ecuador in the conversations and that he would welcome it.
- Signed March 24, 1922, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxiv, p. 9; see also Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. i, pp. 351 ff., and ibid., 1925, vol. i, pp. 461 ff.↩
- See section entitled, “Boundary Dispute Between Ecuador and Peru,” pp. 561 ff.↩